Borissov’s GERB blames fake news on Facebook for Bulgarian presidential election defeat
More than two months after the defeat of Boiko Borissov’s GERB in Bulgaria’s November 2016 presidential elections, an analysis by the party blames fake news spread on Facebook for the loss.
The analysis was presented at a GERB national workshop on January 22, a few hours before election victor, socialist-backed Roumen Radev, was to be inaugurated as Bulgaria’s new head of state.
Tsvetan Tsvetanov, election campaign chief and GERB parliamentary group leader, urged the party that in the coming early parliamentary elections, fake news on Facebook should be counteracted by all means possible.
The defeat of GERB presidential candidate Tsetska Tsacheva prompted the resignation of Borissov as Prime Minister, opening the way for Bulgaria to hold early parliamentary elections. Radev is to decree a date for the elections, either at the end of March or early April 2017.
Borissov lashed out at the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the opposition in the current National Assembly that backed the Radev ticket, accusing that party of “treachery” during the presidential election campaign.
He thanked Tsacheva for putting up with the attacks on her during the campaign, and said that GERB had conducted itself as “open-minded Europeans”.
Borissov alleged that the BSP had been telling lies in claiming that EU funds to Bulgaria were about to be stopped, and accused the BSP of lying about unreasonably inflated prices for motorway construction.
“We need to find the right solutions to convince people that what we do and we want to do first is for them,” Borissov told the meeting.
He exhorted GERB not to be thinking about coalitions after the parliamentary election.
/Politics
