site.btaGERB Leader Borissov: Next Elections Should Be Last Ones in Years to Come

The snap parliamentary elections which Bulgaria is obviously headed for again, should be the last ones in years to come, GERB leader Boyko Borissov said at the regional academy of the party's youth chapter in Plovdiv on Saturday. "No more compromises should be made with the people, society and the political system," he argued.

He said it is necessary to ensure that Bulgaria will have a regular government after the next elections. If the other parties behave responsibly, they, too, would want these to be the last elections in a long time to come, the ex-prime minister said.

Asked by a journalist to elaborate, Borissov said: "We need to work out an agreement: if I end up second in the elections, I support the winner, and if I am the winner, I ask the second and third placed to support me. We should not let the fifth, the sixth or the seventh placed dictate the course of politics. This is not democracy."

He called on the other parties to be careful not to cross "the red line of language", because "what you say now can cause a deep rift after".

GERB-UDF, the clear winners of the latest elections, tried to form a government, but the other parliamentary parties acted selfishly, Borissov went on to comment. In his words, GERB-UDF assumed the whole responsibility, the whole risk of governance and sought support from Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). "I want to note that months before the elections we in GERB declined to receive support from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. We thanked them for their past support and said we respect them, but we are not forming a coalition with them," he said.

"There will be elections again, although we did everything to prevent that," Borissov said. He noted that CC-DB should know better than to make spiteful remarks when it comes to forming a government, because the two governments they have had so far were created in coalition with other forces (first, There Is Such a People, and then, GERB-UDF), and when they have no one to collaborate with, they return their mandate unfulfilled.

The way for GERB is to the right, Borissov said, adding that "we are as rightist as it goes". "Conservative Christianity is the tradition for GERB, plus building up, digitization and rule of law," he said.

He congratulated the firefighters combating blazes across Bulgaria. "They do not need known and unknown heroes of politics to assess their performance. The same applies to the police and the military," Borissov said. He called for preventive action against wildfires. "Those who just through away their cigarette stubs and cause fires, should receive a sentence, conditional or otherwise. Preventive work with farmers is very important as well." He welcomed a Budget Committee decision to require the Council of Ministers to urgently provide money from the state budget to support people affected by the ongoing wave of wildfires.

GERB's youth academy was attended by National Assembly Chair Raya Nazaryan, MPs Rosen Zhelyazkov and Tervel Georgiev, Labour and Social Policy Committee Chair Denitsa Sacheva, GERB Youth Chair Georg Georgiev, Plovdiv Mayor Kostadin Dimitrov and his deputy Vladimir Temelkov, Haskovo Mayor Stanislav Dechev and MEP Andrey Kovatchev.