site.btaUPDATED GERB Re-Elects Borissov for New Four-Year Term

GERB's national assembly unanimously re-elected Boyko Borissov chair of the party and its Executive Commission for a new four-year term on Sunday. There were no other candidates for the post.

Borissov won 983 votes in favour, with no votes against or abstentions, at the forum in Sofia.

Presenting his nomination, Yordanka Fandakova said Bulgaria needed strong leadership.

At Borissov's proposal, the delegates also unanimously re-elected Outgoing Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev and Outgoing Minister of Interior Daniel Mitov as deputy chairs of GERB and the Executive Commission. Introducing the nominations, Borissov described Donchev as “our Confucius.”

The 15-member Executive Commission also includes Dimitar Nikolov, Zhivko Todorov, Yordanka Fandakova, Delyan Dobrev, Denitsa Sacheva, Kostadin Dimitrov, Todor Todorov, Ilter Sadakov, Georg Georgiev, Stefan Arsov, Kostadin Angelov and Vladimir Temelkov.

Tsveta Karayancheva was elected chair of the Control Commission.

A special guest at the event was European People's Party Secretary General Dolors Montserrat, who greeted the delegates and opened in Bulgarian with “Good day, friends, thank you.”

"I will only enter talks on forming a government if reason prevails and others are willing to change," Borissov said.

He stated that there are no oligarchs within GERB, adding that the party will pursue a conservative, right-wing policy with low taxes.

"If I still have a role, it is not that I can teach you more, I have experience, but that I can bring you together. It is precisely this connection I have with each of you that makes the party cohesive," Borissov told delegates at the party’s national assembly.

He said that the mayors of Burgas and Stara Zagora, Dimitar Nikolov and Zhivko Todorov, will form a tandem that will work with party structures on his behalf.

"If I may add to our campaign motto "Order, Work, and Growth," I would put "Peace" at the very front," Borissov said.

He thanked There Is Such a People leader Slavi Trifonov, Bulgarian Socialist Party leaders Atanas Zafirov and Borislav Gutsanov, and all those with whom GERB formed a minority government, including the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, for supporting the legislation that led Bulgaria into Schengen and the euro area.

"We have long been at the heart of Europe, and there they know GERB is the most stable pro-European party," Borissov added. "We built the Balkan Stream pipeline, but even more important is good neighbourly relations," he said.

"There can be no NATO without the United States. With GERB’s full support, [former Prime Minister] Rosen Zhelyazkov signed with President Trump, and we supported Nickolay Mladenov [High Representative for Gaza, Board of Peace]," Borissov added.

GERB's national assembly adopted a political declaration.