Politics is a relay race. Thus Metodi Baykushev, mayor of Blagoevgrad and member of the executive board of "We Continue the Change" commented in "The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov" the dropping of prominent figures from the party lists for the next elections, such as Lena Borislavova, Daniel Lorer, Kiril Petkov, etc.
"If anyone needs to purge themselves, it is definitely the other political parties. We have always said that the people who join "We Continue the Change", I believe, also in "Democratic Bulgaria" It's true, they are people who are successful enough in life and in their careers. And we don't take on this job to stand on some chairs and stand there and receive some benefits and rewards. All our people come, do a certain job and at the moment they think they can be useful elsewhere, they go elsewhere.
To put it mildly, we don't need to purge ourselves of quality people, like Lena Borislavova, Kiril Petkov, Andrey Tsekov. They clearly stated their motives for their withdrawal. I hope that this, honestly speaking, on a personal level, I'm already saying, my personal opinion, I hope that this withdrawal will be temporary. But with us, in politics, from the very beginning, we have come together in terms of values with the idea that this is a relay race. That is why we will now look for and actively look for and include representatives of civil society in the lists, active figures from the protests, young people... we want to pave the way, because we believe that youth is not a vice and one can get involved in politics quite early in life", emphasized Baykushev.
Names have not been commented on, the party lists will be discussed in talks at the leadership level, the mayor of Blagoevgrad announced.
He is categorical that with "Democratic Bulgaria" they will again appear together in the elections.
"I am very calm, because I know that the leaders of both "Continue the Change" and "Democratic Bulgaria" are dialogical. And honestly, I do not expect any drama to come out of these discussions. What we need to do is to concentrate entirely on the support that we want to receive from the citizens. Citizens currently do not want to hear about intra-party agreements, quotas, lists and so on. These are discussions that will take place within the coalition. I am sure that we will appear together in the elections. And more importantly, what we offer to the citizens. I would like to recall in this regard that "Continuing the Change" emerged with a very strong request, beyond our anti-corruption policy and the strong request for further integration into Europe, which, by the way, did happen. Our strongest request was a new financial and economic policy that would yield results. Free kindergartens, increased pensions, over 1 million pensioners who were below the poverty line to go above the poverty line, to create something that was considered impossible, air support. Here, I will tell you, the Blagoevgrad municipality is very close to the stadium in Blagoevgrad, where the helicopter comes to lift, when it is necessary, a person to be urgently transported to another hospital, but this happens almost every day. Hundreds of people are saved every month in Bulgaria already."
When asked if Asen Vassilev single-handedly runs the PP, Baykushev replied:
"Not at all. I will give you an example. The first time I became a member of the Executive Council, I was nominated on the day of the general meeting itself. By that time, I had met Asen Vassilev, maybe, twice at general political events, where we had exchanged just a few sentences. To understand how decisions are made in "We Continue the Change", they are absolutely democratic, in fact. Maybe because of my media appearances and because of the posts on social networks, the people in the PP trust me and vote for me. This is how decisions are made here. The decision that we made at the National Council, that we announced a week, maybe 10 days ago, was made absolutely unanimously. And in fact, the logic is, we go to elections ready to talk to people and seek support, and not to deal with internal party and internal coalition issues."
"Elections are coming, important days and years are coming for Bulgaria, and much more important is the conversation, where Bulgaria is going, what will happen to our geopolitical situation, what will be the new financial policy, will we have reforms in the administration, will we have reforms in healthcare. These are the important questions."