“Hello, my dear Gotse Delchev,
Hello, my dear Blagoevgrad region,
You radiate so much strength, energy, and you are so energizing, smiling, strong, leading to success and victory.
Dear friends, comrades, ladies and gentlemen, we are in elections again, for the 6th time in the last 3 years. It is indeed political instability and uncertainty for people. We are called to give them the opposite – to give them a perspective, to give them a way, to show them a calm, secure, dignified Bulgaria in a peaceful Europe. And we have something to stand up to people with. We have at least 2 reasons to ask for support for BSP for Bulgaria.
The first - we remained the only party that in the last 10 years did not sell out, did not surrender, did not betray its people. We did not trade with the party for personal gain, we did not sell out the interests of our people for personal prosperity. We stayed true to the end of what we promised – to work for the people. And the second reason – we did it in just 7 months while we were in government.
We proved that we are the authentic left, the real social and socialist party. In the biggest crisis – the war started, the covid had not yet passed, the energy crisis hit us, the economy stalled.
Right then, thanks to us in the administration, we secured BGN 22 billion to support every single Bulgarian citizen. Dear young people who have children, your children already go to kindergarten and crèche for free. This is from BSP. Dear parents of students, your children receive free textbooks – this is from BSP. Dear young mothers, the second year of motherhood has increased thanks to us, and those of you who work and have children pay less tax – BGN 600 for one child and BGN 1,200 less if they have two children. This is the concern of the BSP for children, for the young, for the preservation of Bulgaria, for the fight against the demographic catastrophe that has been killing us for years.
We want to continue this care.
We want you to give us support and strength to continue with free medicines for children; young people up to the age of 26 not to pay tax for the first job they start to get back on their feet. To receive one-time assistance upon the birth of a child, for student mothers to receive assistance from the state so that they can study and take care of their children. Caring for young people is fundamental for BSP.
We face the people and say: for these seven months, thanks to the BSP, the minimum wage for workers and especially the working poor became 50% of the average, and food vouchers 200 BGN. We tell pensioners that for these 7 months pensions increased by 30%. We want to continue because there are still over 500,000 Bulgarians who are working poor, and last week the new 960 millionaires in Bulgaria were announced. Inequalities are growing, poor people are increasing, and they are the priority of the only left social socialist party BSP.
At that time, in the biggest crisis, we made it so that Bulgaria took first place in terms of industrial production in Europe – something that didn't happen. Because we supported the economy and gave money to the companies for the expensive electricity and to preserve the jobs. And at the same time, we preserved the financial stability of the state and ended up with a deficit below 3%. Now more than ever is the time for people and for a party that has proven they can govern in tough times, and we have done it in the toughest.
We want to continue, on the eve of the European elections, with a new policy in the EU. Finally, Bulgaria should be recognized as equal to other European countries and the Bulgarian people should be recognized as equal to other nations, because we are like that and have given a lot to the EU and the world, and our farmers cannot receive lower subsidies by farmers in Europe. We want to be equal. Germany cannot open its coal plants, but they make us close ours and lay people off. Bulgaria cannot export its coal to Serbia and North Macedonia and buy electricity back from there. We cannot close the Belene nuclear plant and give away the reactors when Germany opens 6 new nuclear plants and nuclear energy is declared green. This is what we want! We want the national interest to be protected in the EU, and that is why our MEP candidates will also fight. Support them too, so that Bulgaria has a worthy representation in Europe.
We have a lot of work to do because there are also many crises. Millions are poured into the healthcare system every year, but neither the quality of healthcare nor access to it improves. Until we remove the commercial status of hospitals, nothing will improve in health care. Hospitals cannot be commercial entities and people's health is not a business. This is our main concern in the next parliament.
Young and uneducated children are growing up. The future generation is threatened by this and we have to do a lot of work there.
We must eliminate the principle “money follows the student”, because this is how our children are counted, and our children are the future. As long as “the money follows the student”, teachers and principals will be forced, not because they want to, to lead them on a list – gone, not gone, they bring it to get the money for this piece. He knows, he doesn't know – they write him a three so that they don't lose the money for this piece. There lies the problem, and this problem can be solved by canceling the principle “the money follows the student”. I will fight to the end, this is my personal commitment to you, to have one textbook for one subject for one class, and to write the truth about Bulgaria, the truth about Bulgarian history. To learn the Bulgarian classics, not to replace the consciousness of children with all kinds of theories and suggestions.
We have to raise Bulgarians – dignified, educated and intelligent. The content of the textbooks should be simplified. And finally, the main word in Bulgarian education should be upbringing, because education goes hand in hand with the upbringing of our children.
We want to change agriculture, restore irrigation systems. There can be no agriculture without irrigation. The money should not go only to grain producers, but should be allocated to fruits, vegetables, milk and meat. To shorten the supply chain. It is not possible for a person to toil all day in the field, his hands are black, to sell his produce for one leva, and the resellers on the way deliver it to the city and sell it for 10 leva. The producer also loses, and the buyer also loses. The reseller wins it all – from where to where without putting in any work? The people who work for the Bulgarian land should receive a decent reward. And above all, for the Bulgarian land to feed the Bulgarian people – we have a wonderful land. We cannot continue to eat 80% of foreign production. And that is why we want our agricultural subsidies to be equal to those of Europe. We want to stop duty-free and uncontrolled imports from Ukraine. He is killing Bulgarian agriculture.
Dear friends, we can talk a lot, but there cannot be any kind of prosperity without economic development. We need industrialization and reindustrialization because our enterprises were destroyed during the transition. During the time we were in government, we also showed the other side of social policy – state-owned enterprises were rehabilitated. Don't believe anyone who tells you that government ownership is bad ownership. We have rehabilitated state-owned enterprises – they were making money, raising workers' wages, paying their loans and insurance. The state has a qualitative role in the development of the economy and essential public relations such as infrastructure, energy. The role of the state in these times of crisis is key.
Energy is one of the most important sectors and what is happening to Bulgarian energy is unacceptable. But thanks to the BSP, and on the last day of this outgoing parliament, we saved Bulgarian families from the liberalization of electricity from July 1, which would have led to a 30% price increase and no night tariff. Everything would be at the expensive free market rate. This is thanks to BSP for every Bulgarian family and household.
Over all of us, over Bulgaria, Europe and the world, the shadow of war weighs. And this election takes place at a time of choice between war and peace. Let's all loudly say – we don't want war, we want peace and we will fight for it to the end! The first thing that we will bring to the parliament, already in the first 24 hours of the 50th parliament, must be decided - Bulgaria will not send soldiers to Ukraine and does not agree to the use of Western weapons against Russia. Peace is the greatest human value. Human life is the greatest human value. Whatever happens, let's unite as a people, not as one party or another – as a people to raise a loud voice and say that we want peace and we will all unite to prevent warmongers from bringing Bulgaria into this war.
I think that in the past years and especially in the last months and year of this instability, we proved what the BSP is – we don't give up, we don't sell out. When we are in management, we work for the people. We want to keep it going. So support the only left-wing, time-proven, authentically left-wing party that will enter parliament. They let us have a lot of doppelgängers. The political system was deliberately broken. It is deliberately aimed at breaking the vote, denying us the vote, squandering people's votes. Don't listen to them!
Support the real, proven, faithful, honest and hardworking socialists and partners in the Coalition “BSP for Bulgaria” with number 24. Let's achieve our desire, our dream together – dignified Bulgaria, proud Bulgarian people in a peaceful Europe. Good luck, forward and victory!” This was stated by BSP leader Kornelia Ninova in Gotse Delchev in the presence of the entire list of BSP for Blagoevgrad, the mayor of Gotse Delchev Vladimir Moskov and the regional chairman of the party Valery Sarandev.