site.btaUPDATED Campaign Highlights: Sept. 19

Continue the Change (CC) co-chairs Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev announced that they have reported the audit of EU funds during GERB's rule to the European Public Prosecutor's Office. The report is related only to EU funds, which means that an anti-corruption commission together with EU prosecutors could lead to real indictments and convictions, Petkov told a briefing in Sofia. Vassilev said that more than 500 legal services contracts in the Regional Ministry were illegally awarded and none of them were actually audited. According to him this case is not isolated - the projects were pre-selected with protection from Brussels. He said they CC's government had removed the agency's management for auditing EU funds, but the caretaker cabinet had reinstated it.

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Vazrazhdane will not allow adoption of the euro in Bulgaria, party leader Kostadin Kostadinov told a press conference at the BTA National Press Club in Sofia. He is adamant that if his party is in power, the National Euro changeover Plan starting January 2024, adopted by the Council of Ministers in May 2022, will be "destroyed" and those who approved it - "prosecuted for high treason". If not in power, the party will do everything possible to trigger a referendum on the adoption of the euro. The secretary of the formation in Sofia, Deyan Nikolov, said that the envisaged communication strategy of the National Euro Changeover Plan does not contain a risk analysis and no harm from entering the eurozone is indicated.

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During the 76th edition of the International Technical Fair in Plovdiv Bulgarian Rise coalition leader Stefan Yanev said that such a forum is necessary for the development of business. According to him, the smaller scale of this year's edition is most likely due to the pandemic and the economic crisis. Yanev said that in his party's programme is that the state should create a framework of rules to administratively support Bulgarian business, investment, the creation of new jobs and, in the best case scenario, they should be in the so-called high added value industry. He said there is a direct link between demography and business, and the state can support this process.

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Rise Up Bulgaria leader Maya Manolova on Monday called on voters in Vidin to rise up against the system and vote for her party in the upcoming elections. Manolova said that she has always been aware of the huge potential of Bulgaria's Northwest region, and because of the neglect of its problems by a number of governments, the region lacks adequate infrastructure, prosperous businesses, working people who earn high enough wages to live a normal life. The party's commitments are to revive the region and lead the Bulgarian citizens through the crises, Manolova added. She noted that the first priority in their programme is related to increasing incomes and pensions so that Bulgaria does not have 700,000 working yet poor citizens. 

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"This country is broken," said GERB leader Boyko Borissov at a meeting with supporters in Kostinbrod."The fiscal reserve is gone, money earmarked for the construction of the Hemus motorway is gone and all the money is spent," he said. "Today the government is raising another BGN 200 million against an interest of 3% for three years," he added, recalling: "The debt that was raised the other day, the interest alone will add up to BGN 1 billion. When will we have worked enough to pay it all back? This is tragic. The question is who installed the previous government and why Bulgaria had to be destroyed," said Borissov. He voiced satisfaction with the fact that on October 1 President Rumen Radev will unveil a gas interconnector with Greece, whose construction and financing began under the GERB government.

"Bulgaria has gone through wars, we have paid reparations, the country will outlive Kiro, Assen and us," Borissov said. "In order to save the country, we should beat them in order for then to get sober," said Borissov.

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.