The leader of Bulgaria’s populist party Volya Vesselin Mareshki said that will initiate procedure for holding a referendum on turning the country into presidential republic, local media reported on October 26.

Political analysts have repeatedly said that Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has a plan to become president in the next elections and that he wants to turn the country into presidential republic in order to have full power. Mareshki, who is supporting Borissov, might serve his interests. However, the chances for such referendum to succeed seem small.

In interview with bTV, Mareshki said that the recent floods in southern Bulgaria triggered this idea as it seems that all state authorities have shown lack of responsibility, referring to the walls of seven dams that have burst, while a check has shown that even more dams are in bad condition as the municipality in charge has not taken proper care of them.

“In the end we shall call a referendum on the change of the system, for a presidential republic, in which there won’t be such collective organs – national assembly, municipal council, committee […]. If someone has been sent to jail after the first such disaster, no one would allow now a third, fourth and so on,” Mareski said.

Heavy rains burst the walls of seven dams in southern Bulgaria on October 25 and killed three people, while one is still missing. The most severely hit was the municipality of Kameno, where the walls of seven out of 27 dams burst.