They might have collected only seven per cent of the vote in the July 5 elections, but Martin Dimitrov and Ivan Kostov, leaders of the Blue Coalition, were confident: their coalition held the key to the new government.

The Blue Coalition's perspective was that Bulgarians voted for change when they voted for Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), but the vote for stable change was a vote for the Blue Coalition.

Kostov said he had been told several times by voters "I like your party very much and I support you, but I will vote for GERB, just so that I can be sure they [Bulgarian Socialist Party and Movement for Rights and Freedoms] will go."

About the 'third party' in the outgoing coalition that the country was "silently saying goodbye to", as Kostov said, he accused Simeon Saxe-Coburg of attempting to continue the tsar-tradition of a divide and rule policy whereby politicians were invited into cabinets that were supposed to be "submissive to his royal highness".

"Let us hope that never happens again," Kostov said.

According to Dimitrov, the political platforms of GERB and the Blue Coalition were sufficiently close to make a coalition the only logical option.

Before taking questions at the post-election media conference, Kostov asked journalists not to insult the party leaders with questions about what ministries the party wanted in a new cabinet. "We are a different kind of people; we have much higher goals than that," Kostov said.

"Firstly, we want an anti-crisis programme, so Bulgaria can find a way out of the financial crisis. Secondly, we want the mafia out of power," he said.

According to Dimitrov, there was no room for revanchism, something Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergei Stanishev had repeatedly warned about during election campaigns. "There is only room for the rule of law, which is valid for everyone from [Ahmed] Dogan to the last person in this country," Dimitrov said, commenting on a recent election campaign speech of Ahmed Dogan.
According to Kostov, what Dogan said was "criminal and should be treated as such".

Echoing, albeit mildly, some of Volen Siderov's words earlier in the evening, Kostov said the Blue Coalition would ask the European Union to halt negotiations with Turkey, until the country "stops interfering in the internal affairs of Bulgaria".  According to Kostov, the 2009 elections were the "most corrupt and bought elections of the past 19 years".

Dimitrov said the parties that make up the Blue Coalition had led Bulgaria out of severe crisis on two previous occasions, warning that "thousands of companies would go bankrupt in the autumn of 2009 if measures are not taken".