Bulgaria’s Prime Minister has told the country’s businessmen to sell their “expensive cars and yachts” so that workers can be paid during the coronavirus economic crisis.
Primer Minister Boyko Borisov, 60, made the comments in a meeting with private employers to discuss the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Borisov, who was formerly the Mayor of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, said he was impressed by the cars the employers had arrived in, adding: “Sell the expensive cars and yachts and you will pay the workers that way”.
He reportedly continued: “I can withdraw a 5-billion-USD (4.2-million-GBP) loan tomorrow right away. Is this a government loan? Tomorrow our children have to repay it. If the economy is ruined, if this crisis continues – how will they be repaid?
“Now, with all our efforts, we are trying not to give in – let’s spend the money. So I stumble, it’s nice to give, but we give out to the kids.”
According to local media, the prime minister recently made headlines when he told an attendee at a coronavirus to stop coughing.
He was also the centre of attention when he reportedly placed a face mask over his eyes as opposed to his nose and mouth.
Borisov was elected as a Member of Parliament in 2005 but he later resigned because of his career in the Ministry of Interior. After a conflict with then-Interior Minister Rumen Petkov, he left the justice system.
He was then elected mayor of Sofia and in March 2006 he founded the organisation “Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria” (GERB), of which he is the leader today.
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Story By: Sofija Dizdarevik, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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