Bulgarian PM Admits of Warming Up to Ethnic Turkish Party

Leaders of the Bulgarian Socialist Party Sergey Stanishev (L) and of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms Ahmed Dogan (R) have long been vying for Boyko Borisov's spite. File photo

Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov has indirectly confirmed accusations by former ally, rightist Blue Coalition, that his cabinet is warming up to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms it previously reviled.

Speaking in an interview for Nova TV Sunday evening, Borisov commented a recent case in which Parliament - the group of Borisov's GERB included - chose the candidate of the ethnic Turkish Movement to fill a spot in the Committee against Conflict of Interests.

"It is always better to chose the candidate of the Movement rather than the one of the [main opposition] Bulgarian Socialist Party, for the latter are a complete joke," explained Borisov Sunday.

The move had provoked the ire of the Blue Coalition, who initially supported Borisov's center-right cabinet, but  have started to significantly distance themselves.

The Blue Coalition argued that an implicit coalition is emerging among ruling party GERB, which technically still has a minority of 117 MPs out of 240, nationalists Ataka, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

One of the greatest foes and reasons for the hardships of the Borisov cabinet has been identified by the PM himself to be the three-way coalition that ruled Bulgaria 2005-9.

The cabinet was composed of representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, and the liberal National Movement for Stability and Prosperity.

Up to now, the Movement together with its leader Ahmed Dogan, have been, especially in the mouths of GERB and the Blues, the very essence of murky politics and rampant corruption.

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