On the occasion of GERB's announcement that their candidate for mayor of Sofia is journalist Anton Hekimian, the candidate of "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" (PP-DB) Vasil Terziev noted that so far the attempts of journalists to enter politics have not ended well. "For a society to function well, there must be a Chinese wall between media and politics," he added. 

Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Kornelia Ninova said Anton Hekimian's candidacy raises more questions than it provides answers. She turned to GERB leader Boyko Borissov with two questions - whether the mayoral candidate was his personal rat in the private media outlet where he worked; whether there was a backroom deal with another party to allow that party's candidate to win the election in exchange for which they would not investigate the current GERB mayor, Yordanka Fandakova, and "the whole corruption scheme in the municipality for years." 

After GERB's nomination, Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov announced Vazrazhdane's candidate would go to a run-off in the capital. In his words, Bulgaria has almost no independent and objective journalists left.