At a meeting with the local party structure in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city, he has noted the country has the smallest number of migrants in the EU. Bulgaria, largely out of the way for Middle Eastern refugees and migrant since 2013, reached its own version of a peak in the migratory influx last summer, with its accommodation infrastructure failing to take in all newcomers. The developments gave a boost to nationalist parties ahead of November's presidential election.