Bulgaria’s PM: Ministers Should Not Take Part in Campaign for Local Elections

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov plans to offer all ministers to refrain from participating in the election campaign for the upcoming local elections.

Speaking Sunday in Plovdiv at a national conference of center-right ruling party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria), Borisov said that he would stick to the very same behavior pattern that he recommended.

Borisov confirmed the announcement of GERB Deputy Chair Tsvetan Tsvetanov on Saturday that GERB would not team up with other parties for the local elections.

He noted, however, that GERB would back a candidate of the right-wing Reformist Bloc in a potential runoff, expecting that the Reformist Bloc would do the same.

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, as cited by Darik radio, claimed that the local elections would be a great challenge to the ruling coalition, adding that GERB would strive to be as tolerant as possible and to consolidate and increase its presence in local authorities.

“GERB’s goal is to increase the number of mayors and municipal councilors across the country,” he declared.
Borisov thanked GERB mayors, stressing that none of them had bowed to pressure or to corruption during the year and a half spent in opposition.

He insisted that GERB was different from all other parties and that it stayed away from nepotism.

Commenting on the landslides, flooding, road closures, and power outages resulting from the harsh weather conditions, Borisov argued that the government was making its best efforts to set things in order as the disarray dated back to the socialist era.

He said that the authorities would toughen up on the fight against smuggling so as to be able to cover the damage worth tens or even hundreds of millions of leva.

Borisov pointed out that the current coalition government had been on the brink of collapse 3 or 4 times due to the lack of support by coalition partners for key bills.

He emphasized that his biggest fear was an escalation in ethnic tensions.

“I am not afraid of oligarchs or criminals. However, I am really afraid of ethnic tensions and conflicts,” he declared.
He insisted that nobody would be interested in the names of party leaders in the case of an ethnic conflict, while CNN would dispatch a correspondent who would report that the Borisov government was to blame for it.

Borisov explained that GERB’s relations with liberal party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) were the same as those with the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), adding that they were engaged in “normal dialogue” so as to be able to work on Bulgaria’s priorities, including Schengen accession, on an EU level.

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