Политика

A ghost is roaming the horizons of the Bulgarian elections and this is the ghost of the "mayor's party". Politicians and society are watching under a magnifying glass Boyko Borisov and every day they are trying to decipher the signals that the mayor of Sofia - will he run for president, will there be a mayoral party, and if there is - will he fight for early parliamentary elections, as the other popular mayor from Sliven Dancho Lechkov predicts?
Today in Bulgaria the so-called "mayor's party" is a fashion hit, but it is right to refresh the public memory and recall that an attempt to create such a formation has already been made. And it is not anywhere, namely in Velingrad. Let's bring back the tape in the summer of 1999:
On July 2, over 20 "red" mayors from all over the country gather in the small hall of the municipality of Velingrad. The host of the meeting was the then-Velingrad mayor Georgi Avramov, and the host was the then-Mayor of Pleven and present-day Minister of Interior Rumen Petkov. Mr. Petkov represents the initiative committee, which on 9 June 1999. gathered in the capital and there was born the idea of establishing an alliance of mayors. On July 2, in Velingrad, the first founders of the union are the mayors of Pazardzhik, Pleven, Smolyan, Rakitovo, Peshtera, Karlovo and others, assent declared their colleagues from Shumen, Vidin, Vratsa, Veliko Tarnovo, Borovo and others. Attendees discuss and approve a statute according to which the union is an association of former and current mayors who are members of it personally, not as representatives of the municipalities. A curious moment is the debate whether the statute should state that mayors should not be placed under guardianship. We are all clients of the judiciary, Rumen Petkov jokes and the text is dropped.
The statements made by the mayors draw the profile of the new formation: from "almost trade union organization" to "union of people who have passed through the grave of the executive power". The mayors themselves indicate their main capital: accumulated experience, information and contacts that need to be stored.
Another curious and indicative touch to the meeting: at the end of it comes the former head of the Sixth Department of the Sixth Department of the State Security Dimitar Ivanov, then head of the consortium "Europe" and the newspaper "Duma". The other guest at the establishment of the mayoral formation was Svetlana Sharenkova - head of the National Endowment Fund "13 Centuries Bulgaria" under the management of Jean Videnov and publisher of the newspaper "Russia Today".
The ambitious venture, although supported by a serious number of mayors, did not leave much trace in Bulgarian political life. The first attempt to create a "mayor's party" showed that gathering together people who have headed the local government is practically not a sufficient condition to occupy a niche in the political space.
With all the differences, there were also visible parallels between 1999. and 2006: in 1999. The attempt to give birth to a "mayor's party" was made months before the upcoming local elections. Against the background of the blue executive and legislative power, an obvious drive to unite and preserve the managerial potential in the left political sector was demonstrated. The results of the 1999 local elections in question. However, they were more in favor of the right, and probably this predetermined the failure of the first attempt to associate mayors on the way to power.
The other parallel is with a "general" flavor. In 1999 The initiator of the mayor's union Rumen Petkov was close to the so-called "general movement" in the BSP, which must have given itself the blessing for such a structure. Today, the future mayoral party also relies on the authority of General - Boyko Borisov.
How different are the times today? Some of the participants in the political game are new, but there are also a large part of participants who are still the same. And again, months before the elections, a general refrain "mayor's party" sounded. How not to ask yourself if this so modern at first glance refrain is not just an old song of a new voice?!
Elena Baeva