Presidential candidate Iliyana Yotova and vice-presidential candidate Kiril Valchev closed their campaign at the Unification Hall of the Regional History Museum in Plovdiv, together with members of their initiative committee.
Yotova said the East–West dilemma is invented and that Bulgaria settled it long ago by choosing membership of NATO and the European Union. She said the loudest voices on that subject have nothing to offer and set people against one another, because division is the cheapest way to govern.
She said Bulgaria has had a foreign policy with a backbone for several months and that partners listen to its positions. She called peace and war the main dividing line with their opponents: the ticket wants peace through negotiations and rejects peace through force, more weapons and more victims. She also raised the safety of shipping in the Black Sea.
Yotova said that in the coming years Bulgaria can become a strong infrastructure, energy and technology centre, and that an EU summit on connectivity will be held in the country next year.
Valchev said that in 2032, when a term with Yotova would end, Bulgarians should see more reasons for pride in a country marking 1,400 years since the first Bulgarian state formation on European territory recorded in historical sources—Old Great Bulgaria under Khan Kubrat in 632—and 25 years in the European Union. He said Bulgaria should keep a living link with Bulgarians abroad, supporting their language, history, churches and associations and equal rights in the countries where they live. He proposed a single Bulgarian institute to present Bulgaria to the world, uniting scattered efforts if parliament adopts a law on its place, functions and work with business and civil society.
BSP leader Krum Zarkov, a co-chair of the initiative committee, said difficult months lie ahead not only for Bulgaria and that the head of state must know Bulgarian and European institutions and be known to them.