Bulgarian ex-PM Borisov: Ahmed Dogan Rules Bulgaria Yet Again

Bulgarian rightist GERB party leader and former PM Boyko Borisov. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Former Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov has alleged that former Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader Ahmed Dogan has once more emerged as the puppetmaster of Bulgarian political life.

"Ahmed Dogan is the person who now rules Bulgaria," stated Borisov after meeting socialist European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Sofia Saturday.

"He has been doing that for 20 or so years. The years of our rule [2009-13] were the only time he was not in power," added the former Bulgarian PM.

"We managed to stay and had to give up power just months ahead of the end of our term," commented Borisov.

He was referring to the late February resignation of his cabinet after street protests against social and economic stagnation in Bulgaria, just before general elections scheduled for July.

Borisov's comments regarding the former Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader also refer to the fact that Bulgaria's new cabinet, led by PM Plamen Oresharski, is backed by the Movement and the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Although there is no formal coalition between the two parties, both of them have made a number of imortant political appointments, some of them highly controversial and leading to massive street protests in Sofia in the past week.

Ahmed Dogan has been leading the liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms from its inception in 1990 until a failed assassination attempt in January 2013.

He has chronically been seen as a kingmaker in Bulgarian politics, and has been alleged to have formed a network of ties to murky business structures.

When Dogan stepped down in January, the Movement elected Lyutvi Mestan as its leader, bestowing upon Dogan the title of "lifelong honorary leader."

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