Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov’s party the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria, known by its Bulgarian abbreviation GERB and widely seen as soon to become the dominant political force in the country, has founded a Women’s Union – and one of the founders is Margarita Berbatova, mother of Bulgarian football captain Dimitar Berbatov.

The Women’s Union was founded at GERB’s party conference in Sofia on July 13, with a few words from Borissov that could, to politically correct ears, sound somewhat patronising.

Women, so Borissov the former firefighter, bodyguard and Interior Minister strongman said, were more loyal, more diligent, uncorrupt and intelligent, and this was why they had stronger characters.

This was why five of seven deputy mayors in Sofia were women, and three of GERB’s members of the European Parliament were women, Borissov said.

As reported by Bulgaria’s Focus news agency, Borissov told the conference: “We live in a country where a significant part of the population are women”.

Borissov said that the first task of the GERB Women’s Union would be equality for Bulgarian women.

He said that the key issues facing women in Bulgaria were gender equality, resolving problems related to domestic violence, education, economy, culture and sport, and now women had a real chance to implement improvements.

News website mediapool.bg reported that associate professor of ophthalmology Genoveva Alexieva was chosen as the first chairperson. Alexieva said that the major initiatives of the new body would be about health and education.

Berbatova, who works in a hospital in Blagoevgrad, was one of the nominees to be chairperson, but was defeated by Alexieva.

GERB Women’s Union pledged itself to promote the participation and inclusion of women in the socio-political, economic and cultural life of the country.

It said that it would support any initiative that would contribute to the integration of women into European structures.