Bulgarian Mayor: Plovdiv Is Not Sofia's Dumpsite

The Mayor of Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv, Slavcho Atanasov, says he has yet to decide if he would run for a second term in office. Photo by BGNES

The Mayor of Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv, Slavcho Atanasov, warned about civil unrest if the capital Sofia sends more of its waste there.

"The tensions in my city are escalating, the topic is very unpopular and I forecast serious trouble if more of Sofia's garbage starts flowing in our direction. Plovdiv is not the capital's dumpsite," Atansov told the TV channel bTV, commenting on the decision of the Plovdiv City Hall to legally appeal the cabinet's order to deposit the waste in the nearby Tsalapitsa landfill.

According to Atanasov, the order also hurts the residents of Sofia. He blamed all district mayors in the capital of failing to find a feasible solution to the problem.

On another issue, the support the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is considering giving Atanasov for the 2011 local elections so that he can serve a second term in office, the latter stated, he, himself, had not yet made the decision to run, adding a successful mayor is ofter offered support from the entire political spectrum.

Atanasov was elected on the ballot of the nationalist VMRO party, but after internal disagreements VMRO split and he founded his own fraction - "Faith, Moral, Patriotism, Responsibility," abbreviated as VMRO-NIE.

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