site.btaGERB Should Return to Its Right-Wing, Conservative Roots, Leader Borissov Says

“I want GERB to return to where it was. The party should return to the conservative principles on which it was founded in 2009 — zero deficit, support for entrepreneurs, and rejection of populism,” GERB leader Boyko Borissov said in Burgas, adding that in recent years GERB itself had also participated in the populist race.

“For the past few years, I was the biggest populist,” Borissov said.

The GERB leader was speaking during a discussion “The Next 20: A Vision for the Future,” organized by the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria Association. The forum took place in the coastal city and is part of initiatives marking the association’s 20th anniversary, launching a series of discussions on the country’s long-term priorities. The discussion was supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

“When we founded GERB in 2009, the party started out as a strong, conservative, clear-cut party. The fundamental principles we combined, and this entire career that we have built with our colleagues, were guided by these doctrines, by this ideology,” Borissov said. He noted that in recent years all political parties had moved into the field of populism, including GERB.

“We also began actively participating — giving more for pensions, more for salaries, more, more, more. Loans and a debt spiral began,” the GERB leader said. According to him, the party should change this approach and return to policies aimed at people who create economic value.

Borissov emphasized the role of small, medium-sized, and large businesses and said that the state should protect them from excessive administrative burden.

“The most important thing is the freedom of citizens,” the GERB leader said. He also pointed to the need for greater autonomy for municipalities in addressing local problems.

As another key priority, he highlighted limiting government spending and borrowing. Borissov said that policies should be planned with a five- to ten-year horizon rather than entirely with a view to their immediate political effect.

“We want to be fast, we want to be innovative, we want to give entrepreneurs maximum strength. As for the administration — everyone talks about how they will cut it or increase it. Let’s at least make it more efficient,” he said.

The GERB leader said that the party should formulate a long-term economic strategy that creates conditions for higher incomes through production, technology, and innovation, rather than through constantly increasing spending.

He cited as an example a period of government during which, according to him, the government managed to maintain financial discipline and record a budget surplus despite the need to cover significant expenses. “That is what every government should do if it is thinking about future generations,” the GERB leader said.

According to him, social policy should be directed toward people who genuinely need support, while at the same time there should be policies that benefit working people.

“Of course, where there are socially vulnerable groups, the state provides support. We are not running away from that. Pensioners already have the Swiss indexation rule. Now let’s also think about those who earn money — small, medium-sized, and large businesses, and the working person,” he said.

The GERB leader also commented on the upcoming presidential election, pointing out that the main functions of the head of state are to unite the nation and serve as commander-in-chief. “Which of those currently competing, in your opinion, can unite us? None,” Borissov said.

He defended GERB’s decision not to nominate a presidential candidate ticket simply for the sake of participating in the election and questioned why the other parties had not put forward their own candidates. “The level of politics has fallen critically low. If GERB had had a presidential ticket, we would not have heard about ‘Petrohan,’ we would not have heard about a pardoned drug dealer,” Borissov said.