Osman Oktai: DPS’ ‘Unconditional Support’ Comes With Strings Attached

There is no such thing like ‘unconditional support’ in politics, one of the founders of  mainly ethnic Turk party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) has said.

Commenting on a proposal by DPS to offer its unconditional support to a minority cabinet of centre-right GERB party, Osman Oktai, who was also DPS deputy chairman before he was expelled from the party, said on Tuesday it would be a suicide for GERB led by former premier Boyko Borisov to accept the offer.

GERB and DPS are holding consultations on Tuesday afternoon on the formation of cabinet and support for it.

DPS, which emerged as the third biggest force by the number of seats (38) in Bulgaria’s new parliament after October 5 early elections, on Monday said it is offering its ‘unconditional  support’ to GERB, which won most seats in the vote (84) but remained short of outright majority. The Movement’s Chairman Lyutvi Mestan also said they would not back a GERB-led government coalition with "extreme nationalists like the Patriotic Front".

The Patriotic Front, which has 19 of the 240 seats in Parliament, has been tipped as a potential partner of GERB in a governing coalition.

“With three nationalist parties now encircling DPS in Parliament, DPS is more than happy to hold consultations,” Oktai opined, referring to nationalist party Ataka and populist party Bulgaria without Censorship.

Besides, Oktai said, all political forces in Parliament are anti-DPS in their positions following the tenure of the previous cabinet led by Plamen Oresharski that became a symbol of behind-the-scenes government orchestrated by DPS.

What DPS is offering, however, is not unconditional support, said Oktai, referring to the condition set out by DPS to back only a minority cabinet.

“This is a trap. […] No one will take the risk of committing suicide, least of all Boyko Borisov will,” Oktai told BNR radio station.

Bulgarian political analyst Evgeni Dainov also believes that GERB will not bet on the offer of support put on the table by Mestan on Monday.

“Mestan inherited a party that always was everywhere. At the moment he is afraid that the party will no longer be anywehere,” Dainov said on BNR.

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