Comment by Tsvetan Tsvetanov:
In recent weeks, I have carefully followed the campaign for the by-elections in the “Slatina” district (15.06.2025). I write this comment with pain. Not because of GERB's loss in the “Slatina” district, but because of the silence after it. For the lack of responsibility. For the replacement. For the oblivion.
On June 15, 2025, elections were not just held – we witnessed a deafening verdict from the voters. In the largest Sofia district, with a massive mobilization of the entire party and state machine, GERB did not just lose – it was wiped out.
The results are unambiguous:
• PP candidate –DB Georgi Iliev – 79%
• GERB candidate – 11%
• All this – already in the first round
How did it get to this point?
How is it possible for the entire party to stand behind a campaign – Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, former Prime Minister and leader Boyko Borisov, a number of ministers, MPs, mayors and party “ heavyweight” figures – and yet the result is such a failure? The answer is simple, but heavy: GERB is no longer what it was. The party used to be built from below – with a cause, with personal example, with people who cared. Today GERB resembles an administrative conglomerate in which the nomenclature has replaced faith, and power – identity.
In Slatina, voters saw no alternative. They saw arrogance, ostentation, and a faceless candidate with no connection to the neighborhood. The campaign was launched “from above”, following the old mistake – with the belief that it was enough for “the right people” to stand behind someone for everyone to recognize him. The pain of the people who loved GERB:
I am one of them. I was part of this party when it still made sense to talk about “building trust”. I stood on the street, handed out flyers, talked to people, believing that we were doing something better. Today, these people are gone. They have been replaced. Humiliated. Replaced by obedient
“appointees”, whose only function is to nod and receive. People without a past, without a contribution, without an idea. And that's why there's no one to bear
responsibility – because there's no one to realize it.
And those who created GERB?
They're still silent. Not because they agree, but because they're not there. They've been pushed out of their own home by people who are today the “face of the party”, but have nothing to do with its beginnings. That's why there's no party today – there's a structure without a soul. There are no resignations. There's no analysis. There's no questions.
Only haughty silence. And smug posts on social media that “everyone was great”. No, they weren't. They failed. And that's not an insult. That's a fact. But when there's no ability for self-criticism, there can be no recovery.
Slatina didn't lose the elections – GERB lost itself. And this was visible. Clear. Uncompromising.
And the scariest thing is that the party doesn't even seem to want to admit it. If this message reaches someone “up there” – don't take it as an
attack. Take it as a last cry from a person who still holds the belief that politics can be done with honor. Not with shady deals and
down faces. Not with positions, but with trust. GERB lost Slatina. But what's scarier is – it lost the people who believed. And that hurts.