Andrey Gyurov does not have the capacity to make independent decisions. Georgi Kandev is also unfit for such a role. This was stated by the Chairman of the UDF, MEP and member of the Committee on International Trade in the European Parliament from GERB/EPP Iliya Lazarov in the program "Bulgaria, Europe and the World in Focus" on Radio FOCUS.
According to him, the National Council of the UDF will be convened on October 9, at which a final decision will be made on what exactly the party will undertake in the upcoming presidential elections and who it will support.
"Today we reviewed the candidacies that have been nominated so far, because there will probably be several more candidacies. Initiative committees and parties have been registered. We will see the final list, he added.
Lazarov explained that they had reviewed the current candidacies and had certain views on them, but details would be announced after the National Council meeting.
The UDF chairman said that he was very disappointed with the approach of the PP and 'Yes, Bulgaria' in nominating a joint candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections.
'The idea was to unite the opposition forces, which are currently in the center-right, including the center-left, if we mean the PP and "Yes, Bulgaria", on a common candidate, a common candidacy for president and a common candidacy for vice president. They wanted to fix their candidacy - the Gyurov-Kandev pair. They said: "This is it. If you want, support it. We don't need you, we need your voters, but not you." As they decided, so be it. But this is not a serious political approach,” said Lazarov, adding that he compared it to the situation in 1996.
"There were serious political figures, regardless of their differences at the time and the strong personal animosity between them - Filip Dimitrov and Dr. Zhelev, Filip Dimitrov and Ahmed Dogan, Ivan Kostov and Ahmed Dogan, Stefan Savov from the UDF, from which the Democratic Party was expelled, Anastasia Moser also with her reservations towards the UDF and so on. The DPS also had her reservations towards the personalities of Kostov and Filip Dimitrov. But they all put aside their differences, sat down at the table and reached an understanding on how to go through a certain procedure so that a common candidacy would be presented. Last year, there was an initiative by a group of intellectuals in the right-wing space, headed by Iliyan Vassilev, for a similar initiative - to have a common candidacy that would be presented through some fixed procedure. They practically did nothing. At one point, Ivan came out Kostov and announced that his candidates were Gyurov and Kandev. Everyone fell silent, then said: "These are our candidates too." This is the summary of the events. Now you understand that this is frivolous,' explained the guest.
In his words, this was the first part - the political.
Regarding the other part - the personal, he said:
"I am a firm supporter of giving these two gentlemen as much platform as possible. For no other reason than because they are at their own disadvantage. The more they speak out, the more you, the journalists, question them on serious topics, the more clearly you will see that they have not a single gram of their own training. They speak clichés. They cannot even remember what their mentors teach them. And imagine them being at the head of the state."
The MEP noted that the presidential institution should in no case be underestimated, defining it as "the state's insurance".
"The president is constitutionally elected to embody the unity of the nation, not to be "a unifier of the nation", as everyone who has not bothered to read the Constitution says. Embodying unity - this does not mean being a unifier. These are fundamentally different things. But the president must be a solid figure whom people can trust regardless of political differences. They must know that during a military situation, crisis, foreign policy or other crisis - of the type that the Cuban Missile Crisis was at the time - he will be able to make adequate decisions. In the event of a military situation, he, in his role as supreme commander, makes decisions," he explained the guest.
Lazarov is categorical that Andrey Gyurov does not have the capacity to make independent decisions.
"We closely monitored his period as Prime Minister. I am sincerely impressed by Rumyana Bachvarova, that thanks to her - she was his chief of staff - the state was not on autopilot. She did all the work that was required of a prime minister," Lazarov emphasized, adding:
"He was just a nice model who was photographed from morning till night shaving and walking through the corridors of the Council of Ministers."
According to him, Kandev is also unfit for such a role.
"And here the debate is not so left-right. We are in the European Union, we are in NATO. I don't like the term "Euro-Atlantic" - it sounds somehow immaterial. The correct term is NATO and the European Union. These are the two pillars of our development, which guarantee us stability and security," he explained.