BSP, Democratic Bulgaria decline to endorse either candidate in Plovdiv mayoral run-off election
The Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Democratic Bulgaria coalition in Plovdiv have declined to endorse either candidate in the city’s November 3 mayoral election second round, a contest between GERB’s Zdravko Dimitrov and ultra-nationalist VMRO-NFSB’s Slavcho Atanassov.
In the October 27 first round of mayoral elections in Plovdiv, the BSP candidate got 10.3 per cent of the vote and the Democratic Bulgaria candidate 5.02 per cent. In the city council elections, the BSP got 12.4 per cent and Democratic Bulgaria 6.84 per cent.
BSP leader in Plovdiv Krassimir Trifonov said that GERB and the NFSB-VMRO were major political opponents of the BSP.
“We have fundamental and insurmountable differences in policies, ideology and way of governing with these formations, and we cannot support their candidates,” Trifonov said.
His proposal to endorse neither Dimitrov nor Atanassov was accepted unanimously at a meeting of the BSP Plovdiv plenary.
Democratic Bulgaria said in a media statement that it could not support either of the two candidates in the second round.
“Neither of these candidacies provides enough guarantees for the profound change we are working for.
“The candidates for mayor of Plovdiv, who are going to the run-off, are representatives of the ruling coalition – GERB and NFSB-VMRO. We believe that any support from us would be support for the status quo,” Democratic Bulgaria said.
The position taken by Democratic Bulgaria in Plovdiv is similar the position it announced earlier in Sofia, to back neither candidate in the capital city’s mayoral run-off election.
(Photo, of Zdravko Dimitrov, left, and Slavcho Atanassov: podtepeto.com)
Bulgaria’s 2019 local elections: Factfile
