site.btaBorissov: GERB’s Presidential Candidate to Be Decided in September

Asked by journalists in Ruse on Thursday whether GERB is expected to have its own candidate in the autumn presidential election, GERB leader Boyko Borissov said this would become clear in September.

"I had a presidential ticket that would have won," Borissov said. He explained that the party’s intended candidate for president had been Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov, but "what happened, happened".

Asked whether he himself would run for president, Borissov replied: "I think serving as prime minister of the country three times is more than enough. Next time we will put forward three new candidates for prime minister, and the party will choose among them. I think you will like them."

Borissov was also asked whether it was important for Bulgaria to have one nomination for president by a united opposition. "It is no coincidence that Mrs [Iliana] Iotova, who is a very serious candidate and a very experienced person, is not being nominated by a political party, but by an initiative committee," he said.

"The same applies to the centre-right. If there is an initiative committee and we then support a single candidate, whoever that may be, I don’t want to go into details at this point, I could convince GERB's supporters that this is the right thing to do. But there is still time until September, and we will make it happen," he added.

Speaking to journalists, Borissov announced changes to the party’s regional leadership and introduced the new GERB regional coordinator for Ruse, Marten Mayor Dimo Tonev. Tonev replaces Georgi Krastev, who previously served as GERB’s regional coordinator in Ruse.

"The goal is for Ruse to once again become a powerful industrial centre, as it once was. Transport corridors are also extremely important," Borissov stressed. He added that he had never treated mayors differently based on their party affiliation and recalled that Ruse had received around BGN 45 million for various projects.

The current Mayor of Ruse is from the Bulgarian Socialist Party. Pencho Milkov has been in office since November 2019 and is now serving his second term after being re-elected in 2023.

Borissov expressed hope that the current government would take the same approach. "But in any case, as a party we need to have our own candidate for mayor and a strong organisation capable of making the city believe in us again. That can happen with new, experienced and capable people who can offer a new vision," he stressed.

GERB's leader said that a large part of the new leadership of GERB-Ruse comes from the party’s youth political academy.

"We need to prepare a new government, with new people, and explain why we want to govern. They need to be well prepared, so that we don’t end up in such ridiculous situations as this government finds itself in,” Borissov added.