Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov, who’s locked in battle with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev to become the head of state in that country, stopped by the New Europe NETV booth at the European People’s Party Congress in Warsaw, Poland last week to talk about the politics in his country and how the race is going. By all accounts, it is a hard affair between the two men whose country is now in its third year of being in the European Union and they are struggling to see who will lead it now.

You are currently hoping to become next Prime Minister. The current Prime Minister Mr Stanishev has had a very hard time of the last couple of years; he has been battling the economic crisis and European Union sanctions. If you would become a Prime Minister do you think you could change what the EU calls the climate of difficulty of Bulgaria?’

-It is the moment when the Bulgarians are giving a lot of their trust in our political party because they expect exactly this, they expect the change.

Well, it worked for President Obama… Do you think the timing is right there for you?

-Yes, I believe so. After 20 years of transition the situation in Bulgaria is not changed and it is the high time that the system is reformed and Bulgarian turned from the most poor and most corrupted people in Europe as the report of the European Commission says. They take their right place in Europe.

Do you think Bulgaria has been unfairly singled out?

-No, I do not think so. I think we Bulgarians must do so that we deserve the respect of Europe.

How specifically would you do that?

-As I have currently done in Sofia, the European Commission has been good to Sofia, has been correct in its relationship with Sofia and the biggest project for the metro, for the waste proceeding plan, for the water recycle we were waiting for the approval for the financing and it has been already approved and the payments are currently on their way to the municipality. So, I would like to thank the European Commission and most specifically to Commissioner Dimas, to Commissioner Tajani and to President Barroso and to everybody who has helped to start this project.