We thank everyone who, despite the challenges, supported us, he said at the beginning.
GERB is the winner in the Varna region. Out of 12 municipalities, in the first round we won convincingly in 9, and in the second in a total of two – Avren and Provadia. We are losing in Valchi Dol, by a very small margin, and in Varna, Portnich explained.
GERB also has a majority in the Municipal Councils in most municipalities. I congratulate all colleagues from the municipalities in the district.
In Varna – it has been proven that the local government can be bought literally – both in the municipal council and in the administration. In practice, we see how the mayor bought the business. Scandalously low voter turnout. Out of 280 thousand voters, we see that Blagomir Kotsev was elected with 45 thousand votes. This is as many residents of Vladislav Varnenchik region. 236 thousand did not come out at all. This is a red light that should be lit for all politicians, including us, Ivan Portnih also said.
A lot of sociological research was done before the election, which showed that we were leading in the mayoral election. Even between the first round and the runoff, the polls indicated that public sentiment was in our favor. This shows what happened.
You remember that Kotsev explained how 2/3 did not want the Portnich model, but the results show that 3/4 did not want the Blago model, if we follow his logic, Portnich further explained.
It is clear that the result is not PP/DB’s, and it is not a majority, but comes from a certain direction, he added.
The lies of change began to crumble yesterday. For example, Kotsev’s lie that Varna is governed by economic circles, because he was not going to get anything, but apparently he got it from the redevelopers from the Citizens’ Alternative and others. Business has invested millions in Blagomir Kotsev’s campaign and PP/DB as a whole, and it will be interesting how these funds will be recovered. This is the most expensive campaign – billboards, panels, media, social networks, also paid for by the serious corporate vote, Portnich also said.
There is a new configuration of pink democrats from PP/DB, and Gutsanov’s communists, and “Vazrazhdane” nationalists – we saw a very interesting combination, and the reconstructionists. We witnessed a brutal overflow of votes. This has not happened in our recent history. These votes from the first round were redirected to Kotsev, and these are ideologically incompatible votes. This assembly will show itself in the near future, Portnich added.
Why did we lose?!, he asked rhetorically. The first reason is the political racket with the renovations. Well planned – in recent months it has made people’s lives unbearable. With the start of the plumbing repairs with a huge delay at one point, lying about the deadlines – it created discomfort with both traffic and pollution and it lasted for a very long time in front of all of us. There were many excuses, but we could all see that the contractors were not working there, they were hanging out. Unfortunately, we could not explain it in detail to our fellow citizens during the entire campaign. These projects are planned in 2021 – 2022 by the Municipal Council, with the relevant financial instruments. But the delay of plumbing repairs by 2 years also delayed our projects. This shows a synchronized plot. We couldn’t explain it well and we couldn’t motivate people to come out and vote. This helped the corporate and orchestrated vote, explained Ivan Portnih.
What we are leaving behind: The municipality has submitted over 120 proposals for the new program period, for a total of over 300 million BGN, including for 4 schools, 2 kindergartens. Among them, we have submitted 95 projects after an energy survey for the rehabilitation of multi-family residential buildings, with over 600 thousand square meters of living space, Portnich added. We have developed a number of other projects under operational programs, he added.
Many large-scale projects are now being worked on, including 8 inter-block spaces, major renovation of 30 streets, expansion of the green area, new parking spaces, the renovation of the Branch building, which will be completed very soon, two new kindergartens are now being built, and others. everywhere – in all neighborhoods in the city, said Portnich.
We are leaving a program with secured funding for at least two years, so that from tomorrow they start working, there is something for them to do. This should have been ready in 20021 – 2022
We leave the Municipality in a great financial condition, this can be seen from the reaffirmed credit rating. I say it so that there is no speculation, summed up Ivan Portnih.
