site.btaUPDATED Campaign Highlights: Sept. 16

Continue the Change (CC) co-chair Kiril Petkov said in Pleven, North Bulgaria, that people who want a progressive Bulgaria with corruption pushed out of the economic life should vote for his party. "We failed to clean the country of corruption in seven months, but we showed courage," Petkov said. He described Ivan Hristanov, his party's ballot leader in Pleven, as the "blade", which helped cease the import of "poisonous fruits and vegetables" at the Kapitan Andreevo border control check point. CC's priority projects in the Pleven region are completing the Hemus motorway, the city ring road, building a campus for the Medical University. According to Petkov, a cabinet can be formed, if CC, the BSP, and Democratic Bulgaria comprise at least 121 out of the 240 MPs.

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Speaking to reporters in Stara Zagora, Southern Bulgaria, Rise Up Bulgaria leader Maya Manolova said that "it is absurd to have Bulgaria think of closing its coal-powered power plants". Manolova argued that Bulgaria should also "fight" for keeping the Maritsa East III energy facility. Her party demands revision of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan regarding the commitments this country has undertaken for closing coal-powered plants by 2038. Manolova also said that Bulgaria should invest in R&D in green hydrogen.

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During a campaign event in the Etar open-air ethnographic museum, GERB-UDF coalition leader Boyko Borissov said that with its "so-called social policy" the previous government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov "set a trap" which ultimately will lead this country to the bankruptcy situation it experienced in 1997. Borissov pointed out the latest debt the government took out only on Thursday, saying that the interest on the BGN 5 billion loan will be paid by the people.

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The sequence of the campaign highlights featured in this report follows the ballot numbers of the 29 contestants in the October 2 snap parliamentary elections.