Bulgarian Mayor: Govt Should Hurry Building Highway

Former Bulgarian football star and now Sliven Mayor, Yordan Lechkov, insists charges against him are unfounded. Photo by BGNES

Mayor of south-eastern Bulgarian town of Sliven Yordan Lechkov said that he would consider it a great success if the present cabinet manages to complete Trakiya highway.

Lechkov commented that two previous cabinets committed to complete the infrastructure project, but failed miserably, and wished that this luck shall befall the present GERB government.

The Trakiya highway is supposed to connect Bulgarian capital Sofia and southern Black Sea city of Burgas, passing nearby Lechkov's town of Sliven. A total of 328 km of the 443-km highway have already been built. It is hoped that work on the last section will begin before the end of this summer.

As a further comment on the government's policies, Yordan Lechkov also called for a financial decentralization of local authorities by 2011.

Recently Lechkov, who is also hero from Bulgaria's best ranked national football team, which went fourth at World Cup 1994, has been having legal troubles. April the Sliven Prosecutor’s Office raised seven charges against him for abuse of power and fraud. Later that month the Sliven District Court removed Lechkov from his post as a mayor over those charges. End of June Lechkov appealed the at the Burgas Appellate Court, which reinstated him on the position of mayor of Sliven.

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