site.btaCampaign Highlights: March 21

Following are the election campaign highlights for March 21:

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"It is believed that spring is a new beginning - may it bring peace, prosperity, fertility and tranquility in all Bulgarian cities," said in Kyustendil the leader of BSP for Bulgaria coalition Korneliya Ninova, who took part in the celebration of the city.

She expressed her hope that the Bulgarian people can find unity on important matters such as peace, tranquility, high incomes, family preservation and protection of children.

Ninova said that people should judge BSP by its results, stressing on the work done by the party during their last participation in the government.

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People expect the state to get back on its feet and start building and putting things back in order, GERB-UDF leader Boyko Borissov said at a meeting with supporters in Haskovo (Southeastern Bulgaria).

Borissov suggested that the challenges ahead of the next government will be big as the country has gone back to a state similar to the one in the 1990s. 

Justice always prevails and the truth always comes out, he said. Borissov promised buildings will be retrofitted the way they were during GERB's last term in office. "We must give arms to Ukraine," the party leader added. He noted that he could commit to the construction of the Haskovo ring road, which was started while GERB was in office but was subsequently suspended.

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Leader of the National Movement for Surge and Stability (NMSS), Stanimir Ilchev, said in BTA's Press Club in Ruse, on the Danube, that his party joins the elections, because it can no longer bear to witness the fiasco of several governments in the main areas of Bulgarian life, the collapse of major national goals and the slide of the country as an economy.

NMSS's Prof. Ognyan Gerdzhikov said that what pains him the most is the quality of the legislature, which has been failing continuously over the last 10-12 years. He pointed to the Electoral Code as an example of recklessness, as it had been amended 25 times since 2014.

Ilian Iliev, NMSS's ballot leader in Ruse, said that the party candidates are professionals, each in their own area of expertise.

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Apart from prices, incomes in Bulgaria should also be European, Assen Vassilev from Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria coalition said in Kyustendil. According to him, even if the Commission on Protection of Competition is activated and cartelisation is reduced, prices cannot become drastically lower.

Vassilev added that wage growth in Bulgaria should continue for another 5-10 years in order to reach the normal European incomes and that there should be no racketeering, so the money coming from the EU can reach all companies and citizens and be used rationally.

"Those who are not afraid of machines should vote with them, because that is the biggest guarantee against vote manipulation, added Boyko Rashkov. According to him, vote trading is quite intense.

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The sequence of the campaign highlights featured in this report follows the ballot numbers of the 21 contestants in the April 2 snap parliamentary elections.