Valeri Simeonov’s “National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria” (NFSB) and Veselin Mareshki’s “Volya” party will run together in the upcoming April 4 parliamentary elections. The news was announced by the leaders of the two formations at a joint briefing in the National Assembly.
„In times of crisis, the slogan ‘Union makes strength’ becomes even more relevant.“ Bulgaria needs unification of patriotic forces. That is why today, together with our colleagues from the NFSB, we are announcing the creation of the Patriotic Coalition „Volya“ and the NFSB. The two parties have many common goals.“, Mareshki said.
He announced that they expected „great support“ from the Bulgarian people and would participate in the next government, where they would realize the goals in question.
„I can definitely confirm that in times of crisis the state needs unity. We are one such example today of unification, not of disunity, and on a principled basis, and I would like to highlight the three main priorities on which we have worked so far from the NFSB, and I hope that they will be confirmed by colleagues from “Volya” and to become a common program of action. In the first place is a definite increase in the incomes of Bulgarian citizens and the recovery and development of the economy. Secondly, Mr. Mareshki and me, as business representatives, cannot fail to prioritize the promotion of small and medium-sized businesses, mainly in three areas – the restoration of a level playing field and competitive environment, the reduction of administrative burdens and regimes, and thirdly. this is the place of the fight against monopolies.“, Valeri Simeonov explained.
Iskra.bg managed to talk to the leaders of NFSB and “Volya” in order to find out why they decided to run together in the National Assembly elections and what their priorities will be.
„Our priorities will be income, free medicines for pensioners and students up to 18 years of age, the illiterate should not have the right to determine the fate of Bulgarians (persons without primary education – b.r.) and last but not least, to be realized the best ideas need unification. When we looked around, we saw that the only idealist is the NFSB, for which there are no corruption scandals. Corruption scandals were linked to other formations. For us, this is very important – the formations with which to communicate are not tainted with corruption.”, Mareshki said.
When asked by Iskra.bg how they will get the MRF out of the government, which was also stated as a priority, he said the following:
„Through greater support. When people see that patriotic people unite, they give them great support. And like the previous term, those who unite will be able to stop the MRF from power.„
„Volya“ pursues a consistent policy in the 44th National Assembly, which completely coincides with our priorities. A matter of analysis and observation. We have never had discrepancies. We have supported their initiatives, they have supported ours, and last but not least, their policy coincides entirely with patriotic policy and patriotic vision. We made talks, agreed on key priorities and introducedyou today to the fact that we are entering into a common coalition for these elections.“, Valeri Simeonov told Iskra.bg.
According to him, the coalition is always the better solution instead for a party to run in the elections on its own:
The NFSB and Volia are announcing free medicines for pensioners and students up to the age of 18 as their priority, and the funds would come from the state budget. Simeonov said their estimates showed that BGN several hundred million a year would be needed, but there was money in the treasury.
„The whole Bulgarian society sees that there are reserves in the state budget. In my opinion, we can quite successfully deal with the coronavirus crisis and Bulgaria will have good results with the price of quite serious deductions, of course – about 2 billion for the economy and separately for healthcare.“, Simeonov explained.
He stressed that in the elections the two formations are not only chasing the jumping of the 4% barrier and entering the next parliament, but also much stronger support from the Bulgarian citizens.
When asked by Iskra.bg about the priority for limiting the influence of the MRF and the criticism that the MRF is currently governing Bulgaria together with GERB, Simeonov said the following:
„By not allowing them to be a balancer first and by not allowing them to be in management. These criticisms are well-founded. However, in the 44th National Assembly we achieved an indisputable fact – the MRF is completely isolated from the legislative activity and I do not know if a single bill of the MRF has entered into force. Second, the very isolation in the National Assembly gives priority to other causes – the patriotic cause. Third, there was very limited influence in the executive branch, I’m not saying completely. I know very well what the criticism is, because we cannot interfere in the local self-government, where there are mayors in the mixed areas of the MRF and it is not right for them to be ignored from the financial point of view. But on the other hand, most of the state positions held by MRF representatives are no longer their province. It is also a fact that in many places the removal of MRF personnel does not happen on the scale we expected. However, do not forget that we are not a party that has dictated the government in Bulgaria. We still have a great partner.“
According to our sources, there was a party that negotiated a coalition with Mareshki, but after learning about the NFSB, the political force refused to participate in it.
