The municipality is maneuvering and acting quite sluggishly in the garbage crisis. Looking at how things are developing, I don't think a permanent and sustainable solution will be found by spring. This was said by municipal councilor and deputy chairman of VMRO Carlos Contrera in the program "Bulgaria, Europe and the World in Focus" on Radio "Focus".
According to him, the situation was underestimated by the management of the Sofia Municipality. "This conversation was started three months ago and we could have made a reasonable assumption that we would reach this, and even more serious situations in December and early 2026.", Contrera recalled.
The garbage crisis in "Krasno Selo" and "Lyulin" has been going on for more than a month, and the citizens' signals do not stop, he pointed out. "We saw that in the "Izgrev" area, five trucks surprisingly appeared from somewhere, and citizens are rightly asking how the equipment appeared for "Izgrev", and for "Lyulin" and "Krasno Selo" a solution was never found. I expect the district mayor and Mayor Terziev to comment on the situation. As a municipal councilor, I also ask myself the question of what basis these trucks are used, is there a license for transporting waste, how much it costs, who pays the bill, what is activated and what is transported, because we know that in times of crisis the greatest abuses usually occur“, commented the municipal councilor.
He recalled that a few weeks ago he submitted a report on further strengthening the municipal company “ Sofekostroy“ by purchasing new equipment with funds from the proceeds from the “ Garbage“ fee. “ This report is “ standing on its own two feet“ and is not being considered by the Municipal Council at all, which leads me to think that the other strategy is being worked on – to rely mainly on external contractors. Who they will be and under what conditions I am very curious to find out“, Contrera added.
The big problem, according to him, is that the conversation is not about the quality of the city's cleaning services, but whether there will be any at all. “This is not a good testimonial for the city's management and for our capital in general. We are no longer even talking about sweeping streets, sidewalks and squares, we are not talking about washing, but simply someone throwing away the garbage, which is not a normal goal of a city that claims to be a modern European capital“, commented the municipal councilor.
He also commented on the Administrative Court – Sofia's suspended ordinance on the organization of traffic and the postponement of the increase in parking prices in the capital. “Things were done in a rather frivolous approach and I hope that if the court delve deeper into the investigation of the procedure, it will find many loopholes – something I warned about when "Save Sofia" submitted a new draft resolution on the fire, on its knees, five minutes before the committee. Now the question must be answered whether the procedure was followed. Personally, I believe that there are gaps in it, and significant ones, and some of the changes can be canceled at the first instance", said Contrera.