Thousands of Bulgarian protesters bought toys from stores owned by local businessman Marian Kolev on September 3 after reports that he became the subject of probes by the economic police, tax authorities and market supervision authorities under the direct supervision of the prosecution the day after he wrote a critical post on Facebook related to police violence at protests.

Bulgaria is going through the biggest political crisis for years as for two months hundreds of thousands of people have been flooding onto the streets of Sofia and several other towns, demanding the resignations of the government and of chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev who have been accused of corruption and involvement with controversial politicians and businessmen.

On September 2, the protests turned violent when the police used pepper spray and tear gas, while alleged provocateurs among protesters were throwing smoke bombs, fireworks and other missiles at the police.

Kolev, the owner of Hippoland, a Bulgarian chain of toy stores, wrote a post on Facebook, “thanking” the police for spraying his 17-year-old son who had not provoked them in any way.

“Thank you, Mr. Policeman, for nearly blinding a 17-year-old boy who was not threatening you in any way, spraying him not with ordinary tear gas that has short-term effect, but with a chemical weapon that could cause permanent damage. And it is not an accident that so many people were injured, taken away by ambulances or are still lying on the streets,” Kolev wrote in an open letter published on Hippoland's Facebook page.

He used the same irony against the interior minister for ordering the police to teargas innocent people.

The next day, Kolev’s offices were raided by state authorities, which provoked outrage among protesters. Later on the same day, the probes were ended, but thousands people decided to buy toys from Hippoland to stand beside the businessman and show they do not tolerate the pressure put on him apparently due to his critical position.

Meanwhile, Kolev said in an interview with Radio Free Europe on September 5 that a businessman allegedly related to the controversial businessman and MP Delayn Peevski has proposed to acquire 50% of Hippoland and threatened Kolev that, should he refuse to sell the stake, his business will be ended in minutes.

Peevski, along with ethnic-Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) whose member he is, and the party’s chairman of honour Ahmed Dogan have become synonym of corruption and murky deals with those in power.

“I do not know [the businessman related to Peevski Aleksandar] Staliyski and Peevski. I had a proposal for acquisition of my business by an associate of Staliyski and subsequently one of those related to Stalyksi has allowed himself to warn that, if I protest, my business will go bankrupt in five minutes,” Kolev said in the interview.

On September 5, Kolev said that Interior Minister Hristo Terziyski called him and said he was not aware of the probes.

Pressure on those critical of the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and of Geshev is not new. The wave of protests was sparked by a similar initiative, but against President Rumen Radev, at the beginning of July. This was seen as attempt by Geshev to put pressure on Radev, who is a loud critic of Borissov’s government.