site.btaCC Co-chair Kiril Petkov: Mariya Gabriel Is Example of How Courageous, Able Female Politicians Can Be

Continue the Change (CC) Co-chairperson Kiril Petkov wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday that he believes GERB-UDF PM candidate Mariya Gabriel is an example of how courageous and able female politicians can be. The statement came after Petkov was criticised by GERB for disrespectful language towards women in politics after he made comments on Gabriel's emotional state and on her relatives in front of his partymates, as heard in a recording made at an online meeting of CC’s National Council by breakaway CC-DB MP Radostin Vasilev on May 21.

Petkov wrote that he has a deep respect for Gabriel and to every lady who has decided to make politics a vocation. “I know how hard it is to decide to take this step and even more to stay [in politics]. And I know just as well how necessary and priceless it is”, he also said, adding that having such examples as Gabriel, he believes a strong message is being sent for more women to understand that each and every one of them belongs exactly where she chooses to be.

In Petkov’s words, the long night on May 21 in which CC had to take a fateful decision about what to do with the second government-forming mandate was highly emotional and back then he made an imprecise statement regarding Gabriel.