Politicians React after Trakia Motorway Deadly Pile-Ups 2026

Leave a Comment / All articles, Bulgaria / By България Новините

Two deadly multi-vehicle pile-up collisions, one on each side of the Trakia Motorway near Yambol, which occurred amid dense fog on Tuesday morning, caused Bulgaria’s president and prime minister to rearrange their schedules. Politicians expressed their condolences to the relatives of the victims.
Bulgarian leaders
President Iliana Iotova cut short her participation in the Paris Peace Forum and its accompanying meetings and returned to Bulgaria after learning of the crashes. She expressed her condolences to the relatives and families of those killed.
National Assembly Chair Mihaela Dotsova expressed sympathy with the bereaved. “We are all devastated by this terrible tragedy. We pray for the speedy recovery of those injured,” Dotsova wrote in a Facebook post.
Another message of condolences came from Prime Minister Rumen Radev. He visited the scene of the crashes, where he spoke to reporters and announced that November 11 will be a day of mourning.
Health Minister Katya Ivkova thanked the emergency medical teams, the Interior Ministry and the Defence Ministry, saying that “many lives were saved thanks to the excellent coordination”.
Labour and Social Policy Minister Natalia Efremova extended her most sincere condolences and expressed her solidarity with their suffering.
Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev voiced hope that the injured will recover. He thanked the rescue teams and medical professionals who were fighting for people’s lives “during these difficult hours”.
Parliamentary figures
Boyko Borissov, leader of GERB: “There is nothing more terrible than the loss of human life. My condolences to the relatives of those killed. I wish success to the doctors fighting for the lives of the injured.”
Delyan Peevski, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms: “I extend our sincere condolences to the relatives of the victims of the accidents on the Trakia Motorway and wish those injured a speedy recovery.”
Ivaylo Mirchev, co-chair of Yes, Bulgaria and MP for Democratic Bulgaria: “There are no words that can comfort those who have lost their loved ones in the tragedy on the Trakia Motorway. We stand in solidarity with the victims’ families and those injured. We hope the injured will recover and express our gratitude to everyone who continues the rescue efforts.”
The Continue the Change coalition expressed their deep condolences to the families of those killed in the collisions and called on everyone who is able to donate blood for the injured to do so.
The Vazrazhdane party said in a statement: “The loss of human life is the most serious consequence of a tragedy.” The party announced that it has submitted a request for the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works and the head of the Road Infrastructure Agency to be heard by the National Assembly. The aim is to present parliament and Bulgarian society with the facts surrounding the tragedy, the actions taken and the measures that will ensure better prevention in the future.
Resignation demands and Interior Minister’s reaction
Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) MP and former interior minister Kalin Stoyanov called for the immediate resignation of all officials responsible for the unprecedented multiple-vehicle collisions on Trakia Motorway, in a Facebook post published by the MRF press office.
Stoyanov criticised Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev and questioned why the motorway section near the Zimnitsa interchange in Yambol Region had not been secured with sufficient police teams and warning signs. He also criticized the authorities’ use of the BG-ALERT system, arguing that it was intended to provide early warnings and prevent harm rather than alert people after an incident had already occurred.
The MP pointed to what he described as a worsening road safety situation, saying that 433 people had died in road accidents since the beginning of the year, compared with 384 over the same period in 2025, an increase of 49 fatalities.
Stoyanov blamed what he described as incompetent management by the ministries, agencies and other bodies responsible for road safety. He warned that, if the trend continued, 2026 could become the first year in several years to record a significant increase in road fatalities. He also argued that the Interior Ministry had failed in its efforts to tackle road deaths and questioned whether anyone would take responsibility for the motorway tragedy.
GERB-UDF MP Daniel Mitov told a briefing in Parliament later on Tuesday that GERB is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Rumen Radev and the ministers responsible for the tragedy.
Mitov said that, on a day when the government should have shown humility, those in power had once again begun shifting responsibility for the problems of their own administration onto previous governments.
He also criticised Radev and his associates and accused them of once again demonstrating their inability to govern.
Mitov accused the government of repeatedly misleading the public. He challenged Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev’s claim that one of the factors contributing to the tragedy was the lack of connectivity between the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA), the Interior Ministry and the toll management systems.
Later in the day, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev wrote a post on Facebook where he criticized previous governments who have claimed to have “built” Bulgaria’s motorways for doing so poorly without proper quality control. “Those who spent two decades boasting about motorway construction while leaving behind roads with narrow lanes and compromised quality have neither the moral nor the political right to criticize today,” Demerdzhiev said.
He said many had attempted to politicize the tragedy on Trakia Motorway and accused those responsible for past road construction and maintenance of having compromised road safety through the misuse of public funds and said they would eventually be held accountable before the law.
According to Demerdzhiev, the crashes had been triggered by a sudden and severe deterioration in weather conditions, with dense ground-level fog reducing visibility to a critical 10 metres within minutes. He described the phenomenon as one that had effectively neutralized drivers’ normal ability to react.
Demerdzhiev nevertheless pointed to what he described as systemic failures in road safety infrastructure.

Politicians React after Trakia Motorway Deadly Pile-Ups 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-11-10 07:22:00

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BULGARIA NEWS – NEWS AGENCY 2009–2026 2026-11-10 07:22:00