site.btaDSB Leader to Party Faithful Ahead of Presidential Poll: Vote Your Conscience

DSB Leader to Party Faithful Ahead of Presidential Poll: Vote Your Conscience

Sofia, November 11 (BTA) - DSB leader Radan Kanev called on the party's members to vote their conscience ahead of Bulgaria's presidential runoff.

The second round of the presidential elections will be contested by Rumen Radev, an independent supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party who won the first round of the vote, and runner-up Tsetska Tsacheva, nominated by the ruling GERB party of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

Kanev described Radev as Borissov 2.0 while calling Tsacheva warrior of the party with a capital "P".

"We toppled one red general from power last week - Boyko Borissov," Kanev said at a sitting of DSB's executive council, advising the Prime Minister to behave better if he wants to win the runoff.

Borissov could have gotten DSB's support for the runoff had he kept his promise to step down in case GERB fails to win the first round of the presidential vote. The DSB leader, however, pledged support for Tsacheva in the runoff if Borissov resigns by noon on Sunday.

Commenting on the two presidential contenders, Kanev stressed that Radev is an unknown quantity. "We have no idea who this person is, what are his convictions, why is he in politics, what is the point of the stock phrases he is reciting, starting off on the left side of the spectrum and ending up on the right," the DSB leader said. He said he sees Bulgaria's red oligarchy - or at least part of it - peeking out from behind Radev's back. "For the right-wing voters, a red candidate is not an option, it is a lie that the rightists could rally behind him."

The Reformist Bloc is a project that has run its course, Kanev said, noting that it turned out over the past year the Reformist Bloc was being bossed around by Borissov and performing wet jobs for him. He dismissed his former Reformist Bloc colleagues as for-pay career-chasers.