Bulgaria Ethnic Turks Party: Turkish News Referendum Will Do Us Favor

DPS Deputy Chair Mestan has urged the ruling party GERB to reconsider supporting a referendum on the Turkish-language news on BNT 1. Photo by BGNES

The idea of holding a referendum on the broadcast of Turkish-language news on Bulgaria’s national TV is dangerous and harmful, according to the ethnic Turkish party DPS.

Lyutvi Mestan, Deputy Chair of the DPS (“Movement for Rights and Freedoms”), declared in Parliament Thursday that holding such a referendum would be “the greatest political favor that the ruling party can do us”, apparently meaning that it would lead to a consolidation of their voters.

Mestan nonetheless called upon the ruling party GERB to rethink its position. On Tuesday, December 17, Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borisov backed the motion of the nationalist party Ataka for a referendum on the Turkish-language news emissions saying it would be best if the people decided.

“Even the largest parliamentary support could not be worth discrediting Bulgaria,” Mestan stated alluding that GERB were going along with the nationalists because Ataka backed them in the Parliament. (GERB has 116 MPs out of 240, and the support of Ataka’s 21 MPs is key for the stability of the majority.)

“The principle of “Vox populi, vox dei” ("The voice of the people [is] the voice of God") cannot replace the responsibility of the legislature, and political maturity should be expressed in the abstention from a referendum,” Mestan said.

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