Socialist Presidential Hopeful: Let's End Bulgarian PM's Autocracy

Bulgarian Socialist Party presidential candidate, PES MEP Ivailo Kalfin, speaking at a press conference Wednesday. Photo by BGNES

The way Bulgarian ruling party GERB has chosen its candidate for October presidential elections is in full line with the authoritative ways of leader and Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov, said main rival, socialist candidate Ivailo Kalfin.

Wednesday, speaking at a press conference entitled "Presidential Elections: a PR Campaign or a Debate for the Future of the Presidential Institution?", Kalfin criticized what he saw as a dismissive attitude of the center-right GERB toward the institution of head of state.

"I am worried about the approach GERB chose to nominate its candidate, Minister Rosen Plevneliev. Apparently PM Borisov single-handedly named him, foregoing all democratic intra-party debate," said the Bulgarian Socialist Party candidate.

"Borisov's confessions of having roadside talks with Plevneliev and of requesting a meeting with him to tell him he's the man just an hour before announcing his nominations smack of authoritative thinking and not taking the institution of President in earnes," commented Kalfin.

At the same time, the PES MEP said he was "extremely happy" to finally know the name of his main opponent at this point, several week before the October 23 election.

He reiterated his wish to initiate a thorough debate with Plevneliev on the vision for the role of the president in Bulgarian political life.

"We need to see that Plevneliev stop just saying he can say "no" to Borisov and prove his actual emancipation by formulating positions of his own," stated Kalfin.

He further explained that when needed, the president in Bulgaria must actively oppose what he happens to see as wrong actions or policies of the executive and to formulate viable alternatives.

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