Bulgarian far-right pitches sovereignist alliance to ID-reject AfD

5 months ago 18

Bulgaria’s pro-Russian far-right party Vazrazhdane is calling on Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was recently kicked out of the Identity for Democracy (ID) group in the EU Parliament, to join it in a “truly conservative and sovereignist” group, the leader of the Bulgarian formation, Kostadin Kostadinov, announced on social media.

The Bulgarian pro-Russian politician said he had expected the AfD to be expelled from the ID political family “a long time ago”, hoping for a new alliance.

“This is very good news because now we will have the opportunity to create a real conservative and sovereignist group in the European Parliament,” Kostadinov said.

Vazrazhdane is currently polling in second place in Bulgaria’s national and European elections, both of which are set to take place on the same day in June.

With the party neck-and-neck with the Turkish minority party DPS at 15%, Vazrazhdane has a chance of winning between three and four of Bulgaria’s 17 seats in the European Parliament.

Former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party (EPP) is leading the polls with a convincing 28% lead, followed by the pro-European coalition PP-DB (EPP, Renew Europe) with 16-17%.

“Vazrazhdane will definitely work with Alternative for Germany. We have already taken steps to create a new group in the European Parliament and will offer the German party to join us to move the process along. We will not allow the current liberal-fascist regime to continue,” said Kostadinov.

The pro-Russian party is also pushing for Bulgaria’s withdrawal from NATO and a renegotiation of the country’s EU membership, with the party’s central theme in the European elections being about how the EU is destroying European civilisation.

In February, Vazrazhdane announced it had joined the ID group after a parliamentary delegation of the party visited Moscow at the invitation of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.

The link between Vazrazhdane and the AfD is the Bulgarian Rada Laikova, who chairs Vazrazhdane’s structure in Berlin and serves as the German party’s senior advisor on international affairs in the Bundestag.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)