Bulgaria's Prime Minister calls for responsible driving during holiday season

With the holiday season in full swing, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Rumen Radev urged motorists to drive responsibly and think not only of themselves and their loved ones, but of everyone on the road. He made the appeal at the start of Thursday's government meeting, as reported by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA).

The Prime Minister said the government is working intensively on comprehensive reform of the road sector. According to him, Bulgaria's road network has accumulated serious problems over many years, which cannot be resolved in just two months.

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"Bulgaria's roads are a battlefield where people lose their lives every day," Radev said. "There is no way to make up for years of chaos, negligence and the accumulation of deep systemic problems in just two months."

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He identified poor road infrastructure, widespread corruption in road construction, including the theft of asphalt, guardrails and labour, ineffective legislation and enforcement, as well as superficial driver training and licensing exams, among the main causes of the problem.

The Prime Minister also pointed to what he described as a lack of justice for "the obvious crimes committed on the road" and stressed that insufficient education and upbringing, both in families and in schools, also contribute to unsafe driving.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov