The mayor of Sofia returned the capital's budget for 2025 for a new vote.
"A municipality must always operate on the edge of balance. When a vote is taken, the budget must be balanced, the administration of Vasil Terziev submitted a balanced budget. Then a miracle happened - at 4 p.m. hundreds of proposals were made by the economic majority, which led to a shift and to the fact that there was no balance. There was a proposal to postpone the vote by one week, but it was not accepted," said the municipal councilor and co-chair of the "Blue Bulgaria" coalition; prof. Vili Lilkov in the studio of "Denyat ON AIR".
He pointed out that some of the projects in the capital have pending payments, and the reason for the last-minute proposals is explained by the elections.
"They shortened the time for discussing the changes to a few hours. This is not done. The administration worked until 12 o'clock at night, this is rape. This is the overall behavior of people who cannot accept that they lost the elections, the district mayoralties,", said Prof. Lilkov.
His expectations are that after the breakaway of "Save Sofia" it will become increasingly difficult to make decisions in the Sofia Municipal Council. That is why "Blue Bulgaria" has proposed a program for right-wing policies. "Yes Bulgaria" has recognized this program, we are starting to submit certain proposals. Everyone will seek a majority to push through their proposals. This is the great art, politics has a say here", commented the municipal councilor. On the air of Bulgaria ON AIR, the guest was categorical that there is money for Sofia's garbage.
"The topic of garbage collection was purposefully raised during the transport strike. The budget for cleaning Sofia is a record, the plan account is 200 million more than in the last 3 years", pointed out Prof. Vili Lilkov
He does not expect any problems with payments. The Sofia Municipality and "Sofiyska Voda" AD with an agreement to build small hydroelectric power plants on the Sofia water transmission network.
The municipal councilor emphasized that we should not expect them to solve the issue of electricity consumption.
"This is an old idea - on the incoming water pipes that supply water throughout Sofia, the water arrives under high pressure and is obtained so that in order to enter the distribution tanks in the water transmission network, the energy of the water flow calms down in troughs. There are possibilities to install turbines on two of them that produce electricity", explained Prof. Lilkov.
The investment will be for just over 8 million leva and is at the expense of "Sofiyska Voda". The goal is to have them built by 2027.
"They should work until the end of the concessionaire's contract, and in 2034 we will receive them for free. The Sofia Municipality will receive facilities that will operate for decades," the municipal councilor emphasized.
This investment will not be calculated when calculating the price of water.
"With the construction of these two mini-hydroelectric power plants, "Sofiyska Voda" will fully satisfy its energy needs and energy independence," the guest also explained. "Blue Bulgaria" has an idea for the person who will replace Rumen Radev.
"We must avoid the mistakes we made with the election of Radev as president. He must be for the pro-European development of Bulgaria - to be a unifier of the right, an exponent of the pro-European principle," Prof. Lilkov gave direction.
He added that Ivan Kostov is not a candidate for president, but will help make all this happen.