My 7 reasons to vote, with conviction, not revulsion*for Vasil Terziev on Sunday:
1. Vasil is the candidate of change for Sofia. Such is he himself, such are the municipal councilors elected with our list, such are our candidates for regional mayors. Above all, such are the voters who have already voted for him. And in representative democracy – and this is wonderful – the elected is a hostage of his voters.
2. Grigorova – paradoxically for some, but quite logical for those who know Borisov’s political temperament – is Boyko’s candidate. If anyone is surprised that Boyko supported Grigorova in the second round, he does not understand much about Bulgarian “politics”.
Borisov supported Grigorova not in the second, but in the first round. And with the words “to get the capital back, we have to lose it”, he admitted it. I have not voted for Boyko’s candidate and will not vote.
3. Vasil is the candidate of the development, upgrading, evolution of the capital city. He was not tempted to deny what had been achieved so far, to challenge the direction of development. But in his program he wants to accelerate this development, he wants an end to the partisan indolence and corruption that are holding him back. He wants development to reach all parts of the city – both the redeveloped southern neighborhoods and the forgotten neighborhoods “over the train” in the North Collar of the city, where there are endless untapped opportunities.
4. Grigorova is the candidate who disputes what we ourselves have achieved – as citizens, as owners, as entrepreneurs, as neighbors and neighbors. She is the candidate who denies, divides and turns the capital city against each other. Who pits poor against rich, old against young, tire men against engineers. And no wonder – that’s what the parties promoting it have always done, for decades.
5. Vasil is the candidate of the democrats, of European Sofia, of those who believe in the modernization of transport, town planning, household services, renovation of buildings, reform of “Heating”, cleaning the air, construction of sewage networks.
6. Grigorova is the candidate of Sofia from the past – of the municipal companies mired in corruption and shurobajanism (which, contrary to her words, were saved by Boyko), of the denial of private initiative and civic energy. It is no coincidence that, while praising the municipal companies of the past, she did not mention the municipal-state company of the present – “Toplofikatsiya”, which every month surprises us with completely unpredictable and inexplicable bills, while sinking into nearly two billion debts at our expense.
7. Last, but perhaps most important: The elections in Sofia are a national political decision with a huge impact on politics throughout Bulgaria.
Vasil, with all his real and propagandistically imposed flaws, is the candidate of the people and parties who want Bulgaria to develop rapidly as a rich European country, as a legal state, as a modern society with a fast and honorable administration and low levels of corruption.
Grigorova is a candidate of the BSP, the Left, Ataka and the “Russophiles” movement, a candidate of “Vazrazhdane”, i.e. of Rumen Radev. A candidate of the parties and forces that fiercely and openly deny and hinder our European development. Don’t laugh at her utopian “proletarian” banter. Look at her public positions in recent years – they are a clear, often verbatim repetition of the Kremlin’s fulcrums against democratic European development. I have not voted for the candidate of these forces (including Manolova and Radev years ago) and I will not vote.
This is the choice we face. There is no third choice. We are a democracy – whatever the choice is, we will recognize it and live with its consequences. I am convinced that the consequences of choosing Vanya Grigorova will be long-term and very dangerous.
*It is no secret that my family has been associated with democratic politics in Bulgaria for at least four generations – from the rule of Alexander Malinov in 1908-1911, through the democratic local government in Varna between the wars, through the concentration camp in Belene from the 1950s, until the reforming forces of the last three decades.
And it’s no secret that I expressed my concern (both publicly and in private conversations with Vasil and his staff) about the effect of our candidate’s family history on voters with my ancestral memory.
Although – as a descendant of people who were not allowed to practice their profession because of their father and grandfather, I will never accept “hereditary lustration”.
My anxiety about a possible turn of the capital to the past and to the East is many times stronger.
The comment is from Radan Kanev’s Facebook profile
