Terziev edges out challenge from Grigorova
WCC-DB's mayor candidate Vassil Terziev managed a narrow win over BSP's Vanya Grigorova in yesterday's runoff to be Sofia mayor. Some of the biggest cities including Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Pleven and Shumen, held a second ballot on Sunday after the first, a week ago, proved indecisive.
The close result in the capital was surprising considering that Sofia does not usually favor socialist candidates and given that the WCC-DB candidate was the overwhelming favorite. The voter turnout was also low - only 34%.
District mayors in Sofia were also largely chosen yesterday with WCC-DB securing a win in 19 out of 24 districts in the capital. After 18 years, GERB's power in the municipality and Sofia will be severely diminished.
Borissov condemns WCC-DB
GERB will have to cede several cities to other candidates after many years of full control. In Varna, Blagoevgrad and Pazardzhik, the WCC-DB candidates edged wins after impressive comebacks from the first ballot.
In Targovishte, the BSP candidate won, while Lovech was won by candidates from TSP and Bulgarian Rise. Despite the drop in support, GERB retains control over important cities such as Plovdiv and Burgas, as well as a significant number of local councils (including in Sofia), which will allow the party leader Boyko Borissov to retain some local government positions.
Borissov himself seemed surprised after the results and gave a speech condemning his opponents from WCC-DB (who are also his partners in the cabinet) for cooperating with other parties to oust GERB's mayors from some major cities. He even mentioned that GERB will reconsider its participation in the cabinet alongside WCC-DB and is not certain whether the Ministry Council can function in its current form anymore.
Debt issue for deficit relief
The government is trying to solve the budget deficit through two issues of debt on the international markets today. The Ministry of Finance made the announcement to the dealers and will collect offers in the following hours.
The exact volume of the new debt sought has not been announced, but it is probably a total of 2 billion euros. The set limit in Budget 2023 is 7.5 billion levs, but already in January, 1.5 billion euros of ten-year bonds were placed for the refinancing of maturing bonds. This means that a little over 4.5 billion levs, or EUR 2.3 billion, remains, so with great interest and good conditions, debt up to this level could be placed. This would almost completely cover the budget deficit of 4.6 billion levs, which represents 2.5% of GDP on a cash basis.
Terziev edges out challenge from Grigorova
WCC-DB's mayor candidate Vassil Terziev managed a narrow win over BSP's Vanya Grigorova in yesterday's runoff to be Sofia mayor. Some of the biggest cities including Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Pleven and Shumen, held a second ballot on Sunday after the first, a week ago, proved indecisive.
