Socialist Party Candidate Kadiev: I Voted for Change in Sofia

Georgi Kadiev, the candidate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in the Sofia Mayor Elections, said Sunday he had voted for a change in the Bulgarian capital.

“I voted for a change in the capital – so that it can look differently, and, in the political sense, to look like a symbol of democracy,” declared Kadiev, a Harvard University graduate popularly known as "the red yuppie."

He explained the expected low voter turnout with people’s exhaustion from election campaigns since Sunday’s partial local elections are the third elections in Bulgaria in just less than six months after the EU Parliament Elections in June and the Parliamentary Election in July.

Kadiev, who is believed to be the only one providing any competition to the ruling party GERB’s candidate Yordanka Fandakova, said the Sofia Mayor campaign had gone “slightly unnoticed” because of the “constant scandals in the country over the recent months which made people distance themselves from politics.”

“If there is one thing which is positive, in my view, this is the fact that the sensible people in Sofia are starting to realize that the “chalga-behavior” in politics must be opposed,” the Socialist candidate said referring to the so called “chalga” or “pop folk” music which is popular in Bulgaria but is seen by many as en epitome of low culture because of its oriental motives, materialistic values, and sexually explicit lyrics.

In his words, the Bulgarian capital has been governed in an inefficient way not just in the last four years but ever since 1989.

“Compare it to any other European capital, and you will see that things here are more chaotic, more disorganized, and the corruption is greater,” he explained.

“The Bulgarian Socialist Party has clearly suffered a defeat three months ago, there clearly are scandals. But at the same time the BSP, just like Sofia and the whole state, needs reform,” Kadiev stated regarding rightist leader Ivan Kostov’s comments that the crisis of the BSP dragged down his chances to become Mayor.