A Gun on a Nightstand and Wads of Cash Escalate Bulgarian Feud

(Bloomberg) -- Bulgaria’s prime minister accused the president of spying on him with a drone after photos were leaked of what appeared to be the premier sleeping in his bedroom with a gun on the nightstand and a drawer full of cash.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov disputed the veracity of some, but not all, of the photos published in Bulgarian media and on social networks. The leak escalated an already heated relationship between him and his political rival, President Rumen Radev, who denied the accusations Thursday.

“He has crossed a line,” Borissov told journalists a day earlier. “He has allowed himself to fly a drone and take pictures of me.”

The two have clashed since Radev won an election in 2016, with the president accusing Borissov of failing to fight corruption. Bulgaria has been under scrutiny from the European Union over its poor adherence to the rule of law and limited success in fighting high-level graft, which has prevented it from joining Europe’s Schengen passport-free travel zone.

Borisov said the the photo in which he is depicted sleeping in the prime minister’s residence could be real. As to the other images, he said they could be manipulated but refused to elaborate until they are investigated.

Radev, who is backed by the opposition Socialist Party, said that he has a drone, but dismissed the accusation that he used it to photo Borissov as “fantasy and paranoia.”

The president demanded an independent investigation into the authenticity of the photos, as well as an audio recording leaked to media last week in which a person sounding like Borissov disparaged another politician.

“Such an intrusion into the personal space where Mr. Borissov is sleeping is most dangerous,” Radev said. “Such an invasion of privacy is insane.”

According to the prime minister, who once served as the bodyguard of late communist-era dictator Todor Zhivkov, the leaked photos are to meant undermine his government before important “geopolitical” decisions it will make in July.

They include Bulgaria’s entry into the euro’s ERM-2 waiting room and the currency bloc’s banking Union, he said.

“From now on, I’m sleeping with a gun,” said Borissov.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.