The candidate of PP/DB and “Save Sofia” for mayor of the capital, Vasil Terziev, admitted a few days ago on BNT that he is looking forward to GERB-SDS finally announcing their candidate to start the real battle for the capital, hoping that is a clash of ideas, not a denial. The businessman also said that he will not lead a purposeful anti-GERD campaign and will not have personal disputes with the chosen one of the rulers. It didn’t even matter who he was, since Terziev was preparing to criticize Boyko Borisov’s party management model, and not personally the figure who will embody this management after the end of the “Fandikova” era. As in his previous interviews, Terziev never once said a bad word about the outgoing mayor (this time he mentioned her in passing, but in other appearances he did not even say her name), did not evaluate her management and did not point to a single specific example. to show that he is aware of how the “GERD model” works in practice. Instead, the IT-entrepreneur used words like “upgrade”, “vision” and “better management” several times when talking about what the biggest city in Bulgaria needs.
The candidate of the opposition in Sofia may not yet have noticed that, although they have not announced their nomination, GERB has actually been in an election campaign in the capital for a long time, and it is not at all tolerant and positive, but quite purposefully anti-Terziev, anti- PP/DB and anti-“Save Sofia”. Many commentators say that the leader of GERB has decided to give the chair to “Moskovska” 33 without a fight, but this is in no way evident from the behavior of the rulers in the municipality. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that even more important than who will be the new mayor of Sofia is how the forces will be distributed in the city parliament. It is clear that the people around Borisov are once again implementing their leader’s favorite tactic of hiding his chosen one until the last, so that he cannot be discussed and evaluated, and during this time his subordinates shower the voters with propaganda and hate against your opponents.
For example, Fandakova inspects kindergartens almost every day, and at every meeting with a camera she does not fail to shift the blame for the lack of places in them to the regional mayors of the opposition. She began to apply this point of reference at the beginning of her fourth term, when, seeing people’s dissatisfaction with the failure in the field of educational infrastructure, she delegated to the so-called small mayors the obligation to build schools and gardens. After that, Fandakova began to praise the mayors of GERB that they are doing perfectly and to claim that the people of “Democratic Bulgaria” are already to blame for the lack of places in educational institutions. This summer, for example, Fandakova announced that in “Lyulin”, which is managed by her fellow party member Milko Mladenov, there is no longer a shortage of places in kindergartens, which caused quite a stir. laughter and comments in local Facebook groups.
In addition, Fandakova often repeats that since 4 years she practically governs Sofia side by side with “Democratic Bulgaria”, since their representatives are at the head of districts such as “Sredets”, “Oborishte”, “Triaditsa”, “Lozenets”, “Slatina” and others. The mayor also claims that these mayors get everything that the Gerber mayors have. Whether it’s because they don’t follow the mayor’s interviews carefully, or for other reasons, the opposition in Sofia keeps failing to clarify what exactly “joint management” is about. Only a few days ago, the mayor of “Slatina” Georgi Iliev announced to a wider audience that in the case of a repair program worth BGN 33 million submitted by the district administration, in the budget for 2023 adopted by GERB, BGN 350,000 was allocated to him without VAT.
Strange or not, if at the moment there is any clash on the eve of the vote in Sofia, it is not “all against the ruling party from GERB”, but “all against the opposition candidate and against PP/DB and “Save Sofia”. Except that Terziev avoids evaluating Fandakova’s legacy, as do many of the other candidates. Prof. Vili Lilkov, nominated by the KOD and NDSV parties, for example, repeats GERB’s rhetoric almost word for word, that Sofia should not be led by people without experience (GERB directly calls Terziev and PP/DB and “Save Sofia” “amateurs”), explaining that Terziev is a successful businessman, but he did not manage municipal finances. Another active municipal official and already a candidate for mayor of Sofia spews 4-5 the daily post on “Facebook” that the people of Sofia should not vote for Terziev and the coalition behind him, since after the elections she will agree with GERB, as she did at the national level. The paradox is that this same municipal councilor years in addition, provides a completely uncomplaining majority of GERB for any contracts and decisions, including the most dubious ones.
Against this background, Terziev’s plans to wait a little longer before starting a real campaign and lead it positively sound inexplicably peaceful. The PP/DB and Save Sofia candidate and the team behind him may think that speaking without emotion is a good strategy that will bring him success. However, those dissatisfied with Fandakova’s management, whom he wants to represent, would tell him that they expect a more decisive behavior from him. In practice, it currently happens that the voters in Sofia conduct more serious disputes and discussions on social networks about what has been done so far and about the future than the candidates on television. Those dissatisfied with GERB would also tell Terziev that they expect to hear from him a clearer and more definite assessment of the “repairs of the repairs”, of “control of the control” and of “it is good, but not ready”, which they are forced to endured during the 14 years of Fandakova. And that they expect from him less of an “American campaign” and general promises for a better future and fair governance, and more serious entry into the details of specific cases. The people in the gh.k. “Benkovski”, “Svoboda” and “Ilientsi”, for example, are waiting to hear what the opposition candidate thinks about the fact that the rulers of GERB plan to extend the metro first to IKEA and to the closed complexes under Vitosha, which the city’s residents have not yet learned about the names, and only then possibly think about the older neighborhoods. The residents of “Mladost” are asking on social networks whether the next mayor of Sofia will allow the few remaining green areas and inter-block spaces to be built on, for which the municipality’s current development plan allows this to happen. People from all neighborhoods are asking where are the parking lots that Fandakova promised 4 years ago, etc. – in each of the 24 districts of Sofia there is at least one very serious problem (in fact, lucky are those districts in which there is only one problem), on which every candidate who wants to head the Sofia Municipality must have an opinion on what Fandakova has done so far and what can be done in the future.
Perhaps it would be good for Terziev to play archival footage of Maya Manolova’s debates against the current mayor in 2019 and to remember that, although considered an outsider, with gusto and aggression the former deputy reached a runoff in which GERB won decisively in the so-called Roma sections played a decisive role in Fandakova staying in her post. Terziev can also recall what his current supporter Boris Bonev from “Save Sofia” did 4 years ago, who at every debate in 2019 pressed Fandakova with the question of when she would finally fulfill promises made back in 2009 .
As a matter of fact, the already registered Sofia formation also does not yet seem to have entered the pre-election battle in the way expected of it. If it were not so, “Save Sofia” and “Democratic Bulgaria”, which are part of the outgoing SOS, would have performed better at the debate on the recently adopted budget of Sofia. On it, GERB loudly claimed that because of their will to vote against the budget of DB, BSP, “Save Sofia” and the recently turned pancake group of VMRO and “Ataka”, the teachers and actors in the municipal theaters will not receive an increase in their salaries. While DB and Bonev explained that they were voting against, not to block money for education and culture, but because of poor repairs and unfulfilled promises, unexpected changes occurred in the agenda of the final session of the SOS, which said a lot about GERB’s management model in Sofia. The managers withdrew the point for the adoption of the economic framework of the transport, which provided for the reduction of the price per km/distance (respectively the payment) for the private carrier “MTK Group”. As “Sega” has repeatedly written, it is about the contract for the so-called suburban bus lines that are given to the private company. In 2017, the initiator of this contract was the leader of the VMRO group in the current SOS, Carlos Contrera, who will compete for mayor of the city on October 29. After the point concerning the money of the “MTK Group” was withdrawn, it was also seen that the VMRO group suddenly refuses to stop the municipal budget and already supports it. The official motive was that GERB agreed to VMRO’s request to buy used buses for BGN 3 million to service the lines to Vitosha. However, the opposition in SOS missed the moment to call, for example, a press conference, as some time ago MPs from the BSP did because of the same contract with “MTK Group”, and to make a guess as to what the pirouette of the patriots is due to. One of the few reactions on the subject was on the “Facebook” of the municipal councilor from DB Simeon Stavrev. “VMRO pressured GERB not to accept the economic framework of Sofia’s public transport. With it, we would have saved 2 million leva in expenses for the citizens of Sofia, which will now sink into the private carrier MTK Group”, he commented.
2023-09-23 21:03:50
#long #Vasil #Terziev #kind #eyes #Fandakova
