GERB leader Boyko Borissov reacted to the fall of the Zhelyazkov government during a live broadcast on his official Facebook page, following the mass protests across the country.

Borissov framed the resignation as a strategic necessity for his party’s political survival:

“Look at the irony — the Tsar and Parvanov brought us into the EU and NATO, and then history erased their parties. GERB brought Bulgaria into Schengen and the eurozone, and to prevent us from being erased, I insisted on today’s resignation,” he said.

He compared the public anger to a generational conversation:

“When you have a problem with your children or the young people around you, the easiest thing is to yell at them and say they don’t understand anything — but then they don’t understand you either. When you sit down and explain, they do. These kids on the square — they are our kids. Why should we be angry at them for wanting to dream?”

Borissov also gave an assessment of GERB’s record in government:

“I don’t see a single mistake in the important things we accomplished. The dream of young people to travel not only to the Danube border but across all of Europe, to pay in euros — all of this happened under this government, not the previous four,” he said, highlighting the end of the long-standing EU monitoring mechanism.
“All of this benefits the youngest. Older people don’t travel as much and fear the euro.”

He praised outgoing Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov:

“Zhelyazkov ensured that in these 11 months there was not a single shameful act, not a single corruption practice. His statement today was brilliant.”

Borissov criticized leaders from Democratic Bulgaria who supported the protests:

“These leaders on the square — historically — have not participated in any of the important things they now claim to defend. They didn’t request a convergence report, they slept through three years, until Zhelyazkov came, requested it, GERB supported it, and together with everyone else the euro institutions placed Bulgaria in the ‘whitest club,’ the European Banking Union and the eurozone,” he said.

He also offered one criticism of the prime minister’s remarks:

“My only objection to Rosen’s statement: we cannot be angry at our children, we cannot be angry at people. Yes, we must point the finger at those responsible — Radev, Vassilev, Denkov, Atanasov, Mirchev. Why didn’t they bring us into the eurozone or Schengen by land borders?”