Bulgaria's Rightist Goes on Hunger Strike, Wants Govt Out

Edvin Sugarev, poet, intellectual and former MP of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) party, photo by BGNES

Edvin Sugarev, poet, intellectual and former MP of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) party, is going on a hunger strike against the socialist-led government of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.

Sugarev, as cited by Sega daily, said he was ready to starve to death in his protest.

The hunger strike, during which Sugarev will only be drinking water, is not the first protest of this kind for him, as in 1993 he went on a hunger strike against then-President Zhelyo Zhelev, stirring controversy among right-wingers, according to reports of mediapool.bg.

"Go in peace, Mr. Prime Minister! For a 12th consecutive day, thousands of Bulgarians have demanded your resignation, and you keep pretending you are not hearing their voices coming from below the windows of your office, that you do not understand their demands, and you cannot feel their insistence," Sugarev declares in an open letter to the media, published by Dir.bg.

Sugarev accuses Oresherski of pursuing opaque policies and of manipulating people into thinking that Bulgaria will descend into chaos if the government was ousted.

Sugarev draws attention of the ties of the Oresharski cabinet with oligarchs, comparing the current government to the government headed by the deceased Professor Lyuben Berov.

He goes on to list all of Oresharski's inadequate appointments, including that of notorious media tycoon Delyan Peevski as head of the State Agency for National Security, DANS, that of Ivan Ivanov, whose ties with the organized criminal group SIC were exposed last week, as Deputy Interior Minister, and Foreign Minister Kristiyan Vigenin, who vowed to reinstate former collaborators of the communist-era State Security (DS) at diplomatic posts.

Sugarev concluded that the program of the Oresharski cabinet offered generous promises of "meager social bonuses."

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