site.btaUPDATED Campaign Highlights: Sept. 22

Continue the Change Co-chair Assen Vassilev and his colleagues gathered on Thursday in front of Saint Sophia Church in Sofia, where they talked with citizens. Vassilev called on all citizens to really appreciate Bulgarian independence. In his words, throughout the process of achieving this independence, Bulgaria has defended its aspiration despite the great powers. This must continue today, he said. To be independent, Bulgarians must be strong as a state and united as a nation, Vassilev said. In front of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, he and his colleagues, including Kalina Konstantinova, Iskren Mitev, Nastimir Ananiev, and Venko Sabrutev, took a group photo.

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Bulgarian Rise leader Stefan Yanev told supporters in the northeastern town of Razgrad that Bulgarian society needs a new course of development. We, as a society, should be able to define our agenda and look for the good solutions, Yanev said. He noted that one of his reasons to embark on the path of politics was his sense of duty. Another reason was what he saw as a lopsided party life in Bulgaria. One of the ambitions of Bulgarian Rise, as a new party, is to build a mechanism to enable civil society to work with the party every day and make itself heard, to ensure that society and the party share common ideas and pursue common solutions. According to Yanev, the political opponent of Bulgarian Rise is global liberalism. The fight against global liberalism is the path which the party has chosen. It is the path of conservatism, which is likely to become ever more influential in the coming decades, he said. Krastyu Sotirov, the party's top candidate for the Razgrad constituency, described Yanev's visit to the town as a major event.

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Rise Up Bulgaria leader Maya Manolova said at a briefing in Pernik that the appeal to politicians is to look at Bulgaria’s history and the heroism of those who fought for the country’s independence. She said that now is the time for courageous and consistent statesmen to put Bulgarians’ interests before servility to foreign embassies. Manolova described the possible closure of coal mining and coal power plants as inadequate behaviour. According to her, this is foreign worship and betrayal of national interests, and the reason for the closure of the four units of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, and the halt of the construction of the Belene NPP. The stakes for these elections are huge, Manolova pointed out and expressed doubt whether she can stop the parties pushing Bulgaria towards war. 

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There Is Such a People (TISP) deputy leader Toshko Yordanov told a campaign rally in the southeastern town of Yambol that the party leaders in the executive government should be replaced by experts. Expert-based governance is the only way to ensure stability and correct decisions, Yordanov said. He expects that the formation of the next National Assembly will be a difficult job. If Kiril Petkov and Asen Vassilev, the co-leaders of Continue the Change, ignore their egos and accept that they may not necessarily be in the executive government, if they put the national interests above their desire to be ministers, it may work, Yordanov argued. Otherwise, they should bear the responsibility for new elections, he added. Commenting on TISP's idea for a referendum on whether Bulgaria should become a presidential republic, Yordanov said no one is wiser than their people. He said the problem of a parliamentary coalition is that no one bears responsibility. He noted that after France turned from a parliamentary republic into a semi-presidential republic, the political instability in that country was over.

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GERB leader Boyko Borissov said in the Danubian city of Ruse that the nation should be aware that it will take very hard work to leave the two-year bad dream behind. "We can do it, but the people must be united, and they must realize how they were deceived," Borissov said. Bulgaria has survived wars, has paid reparations - Bulgaria will live on. "We will pull ourselves together and we will get better," he said. The GERB-UDF parliamentary candidates for Ruse, with Dessislava Atanassova being the top nominee, were presented at the meeting. Atanassova said: "There are extraordinary people in our team. I am sure we will win. GERB is a cause, it is the only responsible political party which has governed the country in crisis and has proven that it can govern in crisis. GERB are the real people, the good people."

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Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova told journalists in Blagoevgrad, Southwestern Bulgaria that the party's achievements are recognized by young people, businesses and senior citizens alike. At the end of her two-day tour of the country, Ninova, who is the top parliamentary candidate of the BSP for Bulgaria coalition for First Multimember Constituency in Blagoevgrad, said that the things the BSP has done for young people include free access to kindergartens, higher maternity benefits and lower taxes. She said the political programme of BSP for Bulgaria stipulates free medicines and free textbooks for the children, and adjustment of the pensions for the older people. To the business people who are worried about energy prices, she said that a price cap will be imposed and the difference will be covered by the government. Other parliamentary candidates of Coalition for Bulgaria also took part in the  campaign rallies in Blagoevgrad Region.

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.