“We are a centrist party”. “We continue the change” decides on the coalition with “Democratic Bulgaria” by Tuesday
“We continue the change” (PP) will announce by Tuesday whether it will appear with “Democratic Bulgaria” (DB) in the upcoming early elections in the fall. This was said by the co-founder of the party and former deputy prime minister Asen Vassilev in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.
At the end of July, the co-chairman of DB Hristo Ivanov called for general participation in the elections with the PP based on their positions on the war in Ukraine and corruption in Bulgaria. The deadline for submitting documents to the CEC for appearing in the elections is Wednesday, 5 p.m. on August 17.
As a possible reason for not appearing together, Vassilev pointed out that “We continue the change” is not a right-wing party.
“We are a centrist party. From the right side of the spectrum, we have taken the fact that we do not want to touch the tax rates, we want the flat tax to be preserved and, in general, mainly through the collection and through the initiative of the private sector to make the thing happen. From the left side on the spectrum we have taken a fairly broad social agenda,” he said.
To Silvia Velikova’s question, this is not appropriate for the coalition with the BSP, Vasilev answers: “Yes, and no. The BSP want to raise taxes, to move to a progressive tax. They have a much more aggressive social program.”
He said that the decision on whether the PP will run with the BD in the elections will be taken by Tuesday after the results of the poll specially commissioned by them are discussed.
Vassilev confirmed the position of former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov from Saturday that PP would not re-coalite with “There is such a people” (ITN), even if Slavi Trifonov’s party enters the parliament. A day ago, Petkov described ITN as a “Trojan horse”.
The former deputy prime minister also appointed the leader of the GERB Boyko Borisov as “the thing that stops GERB from being able to participate in governance” and said that “We continue the change” will not ally with Borisov’s party while he makes the decisions in it.
Regarding the position on Russia and differences with former coalition partner BSP, Vassilev said he sees “predictability” in the left and distinguished the PP from the position of BSP leader Kornelia Ninova, who still calls Russia a “friendly country”.
Regarding the energy crisis and gas supplies for Bulgaria, he emphasizes that the party’s position is “always pragmatic”. “We need to buy gas from the supplier who will certainly deliver it, at the cheapest possible price. And here the question is whether Gazprom is such a supplier,” Vassilev said.