Bulgaria PM: Protest Rally Was Driven by Envious Socialists

Commenting on a protest rally staged by the opposition left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said that it was triggered by envy over the achievements of the GERB government.

On Saturday afternoon, thousands gathered in front of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, demanding the resignation of the GERB government over its all-out failure.

Sergey Stanishev, BSP leader, President of the Party of European Socialists, PES, and former Prime Minister of Bulgaria, called on everyone dissatisfied with the policy of the center-right ruling party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) to join the rally.

The socialist leader explained that Bulgaria needed to be rescued after GERB's term in office and called on the people to back BSP for a term of office that would bring a deep change and open prospects for revival.

The press office of BSP argued that the rally held under the motto "Let's Put an End to the GERB Disaster" had been attended by over 20 000 protesters.

"The only good thing about this rally is that a lot of Roma people were given money and a lot of people made a trip to Sofia to do some shopping and many stores registered increased turnovers," Borisov declared.

"They made a nice trip to Sofia to see how I made it, to see the subway in person, because they never saw it, to see all of the gardens and flyovers and the cleanness in Sofia," he added.

"I had not even heard about the rally because it was supposed to take place last Sunday but they obviously failed to summon enough people. I learned that they raised money to pay the bus expenses and the sandwiches for the people coming to Sofia. Stanishev obviously wanted to bring together 20 000 people but they were no more than 3000 – 5000 at the most," Bulgaria's Prime Minister suggested.

He claimed that the rally had been driven by the socialists' envy over the achievements of the GERB Cabinet, most notably the 20% gas price discount agreed with Russian Gazprom on Thursday.

Borisov insisted that the socialists had failed to put up with the fact that Bulgaria was improving noticeably, gaining more and more competitive power, which was universally recognized by rating agencies and analysts.

Earlier on Saturday, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Djankov also commented on the rally staged by BSP, saying that "the socialists in Bulgaria are the only ones who steered the country into crises."

Djankov added that the government of Sergey Stanishev had brought the crisis to the country, despite the fact that the socialist leader persistently denied its existence.

Dimitar Glavchev, Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Group of center-right ruling party GERB, also responded to the attacks of the BSP leader, claiming that BSP had exaggerated the number of protesters who took part in the rally.