Kuneva Slams Bulgarian Govt, Vows No Dirty Deals

Ex EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva is emerging as one of the new political leaders in Bulgaria. Photo by BGNES

Meglena Kuneva, Bulgaria's former EU Commissioner who is now the leader of her own political party "Bulgaria for Citizens", has promised not to cheat her voters with "covert, dirty deals".

She did describe the ruling center-right party GERB as her political entity's "main opponent" but stressed that she was seeking a wider political change.

"Bulgaria for Citizens" is an alternative but not exactly an alternative to GERB but to the entire political system which keeps on reproducing its worst features," Kuneva said Monday on bTV.

"I have no backstage deals," the ex EU Commissioner said regarding claims that her party was actually a secret satellite of the ruling party GERB.

Kuneva did not rule out the possibility of her party forming a coalition after the 2013 general elections but she did vow, "I am not going to make any secret, dirty coalitions."

At the same time, she made it clear she saw no worthy partners among the existing political forces in Bulgaria.

"I wish there were a party that I could describe as having the moral foundations for building a coalition but I can see none of those. Between the other parties and myself there are many provisions of the Penal Code with respect to election fraud and, possibly, perjury," Kuneva stated with respect to the vote buying that occurs in Bulgaria, and declared she would do anything possible to get international observers for the elections next year.

The ex EU Commissioner also elaborated on her criticism of the governing party GERB and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov by saying that she expected three main things from GERB: massive mudslinging at GERB's political rivals, the creation of fake political parties, and election manipulations, including vote buying.

"With respect to the contemporary economy, we are about a century, a century and a half behind Europe. The others are creating a digitalized economy and high value added services, while in Bulgaria we are doing the opposite," Kuneva said, describing the government's labor and social programs as "moving rocks from one spot to another".

"Bulgaria's competitiveness isn't improving. We're just having fewer and fewer workers producing the same unit of produce, and that is supposed to mean improved competitiveness," she added slamming the Borisov Cabinet.

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