Sofia's transport blockade is getting worse.
We have been without public transport for six days. Tension is growing, aggression is already breaking out in the congested boulevards, and only the good weather is softening the situation. This was commented on "Facebook" by political scientist Kaloyan Metodiev.
Behind the transport strike is the economic majority (or more correctly, the clientelistic majority). Through the clientelists of the UDF and Sofianski, Borisov took over the municipality in 2005-2007, and now he has added the BSP clientele and Vanya Grigorova to his list. Back in 2023, I asked dozens of times in public where the huge money for Grigorova's campaign came from, who would beat billionaire Terziev on billboards. The story of the poor trade unionist from the neighborhood is radically different from the extraction of such resources. Time has arranged the puzzle. The clientele has ordered a majority and Borisov has whipped her to seek revenge against the mayor for losing the elections. And he said so publicly.
And Terziev has no particularly useful moves. He has no majority in the council. He has quarreled with his partners. He has wasted almost two years without dismantling the GERB octopus in the Sofia Municipality, and there was no way he could, because they were in a national assembly (GERB, PP-DB and DPS). Where are his deputy mayors for transport and finance at the moment? The mayor must explain this. You don't go to war without an army, unless you want to commit suicide.
Tonight, the PP announced a protest in front of the municipality in support of the mayor. Another mistake! Sofia residents do not board public transport with party cards. The protest may be against the economic majority and the unrealistic demands of the unions. The rest is for narrow party use.
Where are we, the city's residents? We are pure hostages of the revengeful Borisov, who is directing the process through his union and municipal proxies.
If Mayor Terziev gives in to the drivers' salaries, this will not solve the problem, but will deepen it. In weeks, they will be handed a garbage crisis and in the middle of summer the city will wake up covered in garbage, with stinking buckets and infections. Then there will be another crisis. Then another. It will be like this until they remove him, make a deal and kneel down to Borisov or defeat him. While his people are negotiating left and right with the various players, and the "team" he has evaporated, there is no way to defeat him.
This is the situation! A hostage crisis with an unclear outcome. The mistaken constitution makes most mayors pawns of anonymous and corrupt majorities in the bloated municipal councils.
Borisov's mistaken thinking makes him think that the Sofia Municipality is his personal property. And he wants it.
And a million and a half people live under blockade!