Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has ordered an investigation into all guest houses in the country financed with European Union agricultural funds for rural development, following publications in local media that some of them have not been used as declared in the funding papers, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on April 24.

Local media reports suggest that rather than building guest houses their recipients used the money to build luxury homes. 

The latest investigation will also cover all vehicles acquired using EU funds. The police will probe documentation and make on-site inspections to check whether the guest houses are being used for their intended purpose.

This follows on from the ongoing scandal over purchases of luxury properties by top politicians and magistrates at a cost significantly below the market value, which has led to several resignations and investigations ahead of the May 26 European parliament election.

The scandal, dubbed Apartmentgate by local media, has seriously destabilised the ruling Gerb party, which lost support and, according to a recent poll, could gain less votes than the BSP in May. If this happens, analysts believe that Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s government will collapse and the country will face its fifth consecutive early election, most likely in the autumn.

Analysts have suggested that in the coming days information about alleged illegal purchases of property by opposition members could emerge in media close to those in power.

The April 24 decision came the day after the prosecution announced the start of investigations into allegations of misuse of EU funds by the family of Elena Yoncheva, the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) MP who is the top candidate on the party’s European Parliament election list, and former deputy economy minister Alexander Manolev. This probe was launched following a report on the local PIK news website associated with controversial businessman and member of the ethnic-Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party Delyan Peevski. Both Yoncheva and Manolev have denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

The Apartmentgate scandal broke in March when the independent investigative news outlet Bivol.bg along with Radio Free Europe and anti-corruption NGO Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) published information that Tsvetan Tsvetanov, an influential politician close to Borissov, had bought an extremely luxurious apartment in Sofia for less than 25% of its market price.

In the following days, the scandal spread as it was revealed that other top Gerb members, including Justice Minister Tstetska Tsacheva, Deputy Minister of Sport Vanya Koleva, Deputy Energy Minister Georgi Parvanov and Vezhdi Rashidov, head of the parliament’s committee on culture and a former culture minister, had all acquired luxury apartments built by the same company, Artex Engineering, for well below market value. They are all under investigation by the anti-corruption body.

The property acquisition scandal is still unfolding and has already led to several resignations and probes into top-level magistrates. Earlier in April, Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov ordered an investigation into the controversial acquisition of property by the head of the anti-corruption commission Plamen Georgiev, the wife of Supreme Court of Cassation head Lozan Panov and the son of National Investigation Service director Borislav Sarafov.

Property purchases by Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova, BSP MP Valeri Zhablyanov, Valeri Simeonov and his far-right National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB), which is part of the ruling coalition, and several other politicians, are also under investigation.