Socialist Leader: Bulgarian PM Kisses 'Rival', Gives Him Puppies!

Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergey Stanishev shows a picture on which Boyko Borisov (R) and Ahmed Dogan (L) kiss. Photo by the Bulgarian Socialist Party

Left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party's leader Sergey Stanishev accused Prime Minister Boyko Borisov of having kissed the leader of ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party Ahmed Dogan.

On Friday, Stanishev answered to an earlier statement on behalf of Borisov, who jokingly claimed that the Bulgarian Socialist Party "becomes stronger when it kisses the Movement for Rights and Freedoms."

The Prime Minister referred to Dogan's "promise" that his party would support the socialists in the presidential runoff on Sunday "in exchange for a nice kiss." Borisov, a self-proclaimed rival of Dogan, further stated that the ethnic Turkish party enjoys a "cat and mouse" game with Stanishev's formation.

"I have not kissed Dogan, Boyko Borisov has," Stanishev commented, as cited by the Dnevnik daily. "Borisov gives away puppies as presents to those whom he admires most, including Dogan, so he'd better cut the non-sense," Stanishev added, pointing out that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also received one of Borisov's puppies.

The left-wing leader and former Prime Minister (2005-2009) publicly displayed a picture of Borisov and Dogan greeting each other with a kiss.

Upon asked about the local election runoffs in the Bulgarian municipalities in which the socialist party faces candidates endorsed by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Stanishev pointed out that clashes like that have occurred in the past and stated that each party will fight for its own.

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