Krasimir Georgiev Valchev

Public record

Compiled from publications and official records as of 18.10.2026. Every statement links to its source; claims made by others are marked as such, with who makes them. Quotations in English are our translation.

Russia

• Russian initiatives. In May 2025, in written replies to PP-DB MPs Bozhidar Bozhanov and Kristina Petkova, Valchev wrote that he had instructed schools to refrain from taking part in initiatives of the Russian Cultural and Information Centre in Sofia and in initiatives involving official Russian representatives or persons sanctioned over Russia's aggression. The ministry is to remove the "Together in the 21st Century" contest from the national calendar after suspicions of Russian propaganda. — RFE/RL, 22.05.2025
• The Russian language. In May 2025 Valchev stated that the ministry has neither promoted nor restricted the study of Russian and does not plan to restrict it; according to him, Russian is studied as the first profile subject in nearly ten schools and 40 schools have classes in the language. — News.bg, 29.05.2025

Corruption and scandals

• The KPKONPI check. In June 2020 the anti-corruption commission (KPKONPI) opened a conflict-of-interest check on Education Minister Valchev and Consumer Protection Commission chair Dimitar Margaritov over publications on a website of 12 and 14 June 2020. According to the publications, Margaritov's wife, Maria Karabelova-Margaritova, is executive director of the Prosveta foundation, is a wedding godparent (kuma) of Valchev and a business partner of his wife in Bonafide Advisors Ltd; all new Prosveta textbooks for 11th grade for 2020/21 were approved by Valchev. The publications also claim that the minister's wife owns PR and Event Consulting AD, which organises events for the Consumer Protection Commission. No decision by the commission was found. — News.bg, 17.06.2020
• Godparents and the reply. Mediapool writes that the KPKONPI check followed a publication on the PIK website, on which the commission acted of its own motion, and that it has been known for years that Valchev and his wife Liliya were wedding godparents to Margaritov and Maria Karabelova-Margaritova. According to Mediapool's check of the commercial register, Liliya Valcheva was on the management of the PR company when it was founded, but has not held that position since 2009. Valchev said the check would show that his wife has had no stake in the PR company for 11 years. — Mediapool, 17.06.2020
• The stopped contract. A Trud profile of Valchev on his appointment as minister in 2017 says that among the few scandals involving his name was a stopped BGN 2 million contract for anti-stress balls, signs and advertising materials under minister Kuneva, "because Valchev's signature was under it" (our translation). Valchev was then chief secretary of the Ministry of Education. This comes from a single source. — Trud, 20.05.2017
• The Student House. In February 2026 student organisations in the National Student House claimed in a letter to the media that Minister Valchev had sent them an order to leave the centre; in their words this is being done "at the eleventh hour" on the basis of a "concept adopted quietly, without public discussion" (our translation). The organisations are a party to the dispute; they write that they have not seen the report of the ministry's inspection. The article gives no reply from the ministry. — Actualno.com, 19.02.2026

Other

• Career. 24 Chasa presents him as "the leader of the GERB–SDS list of parliamentary candidates in the Stara Zagora constituency, Krasimir Valchev, who is also a former minister of education and science" (our translation). — 24 Chasa, 01.04.2026