Bulgarian pro-Russian MEP nominated for pro-NATO party list

7 months ago 33

Elena Yoncheva, the EU lawmaker from the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP/PES), is poised to join the electoral list of the Turkish minority party DPS – a very pro-EU and pro-NATO political force.

Yoncheva, a former investigative journalist and one of the BSP’s most active MEPs, is known for having worked to expose corruption during the rule of long-time ex-prime minister Boyko Borissov and his party GERB (EPP).

However, with no chance of being re-nominated by the socialist party, as she is in serious conflict with BSP leader Kornelia Ninova, Yoncheva has sought opportunity elsewhere, being nominated by the main DPS local organisation in the south-western Bulgarian city of Blagoevgrad – a political stronghold of US-sanctioned co-leader Delyan Peevski.

“I accept the nomination of DPS-Blagoevgrad to participate in the campaign as a candidate for MEP as a recognition of everything I have achieved in the European Parliament for Bulgaria”, Yoncheva wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

In the past year, the DPS, part of the EU political group Renew, has actively defended pro-EU and pro-NATO positions, taken a hawkish stance against Russian economic and energy interests in Bulgaria and claimed to support Ukraine.

At the same time, Yoncheva has more than once taken some pro-Russian positions in the European Parliament in line with the BSP party stance.

In February, Yoncheva and the four MEPs on the BSP list did not take part in the vote on the EU Parliament’s resolution on the so-called ‘Russiagate’ probe, which could see lawmakers stripped of their immunity if they are found by national authorities to be spying for Russia.

Among those who voted in favour of the resolution was MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk of the DPS, co-leader of ALDE (Renew Europe), who will likely be Yoncheva’s partner in the next European Parliament.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party opposes sending military aid to Ukraine and sees aid to Kyiv as an act of incitement to war in Ukraine. The party refuses to condemn Russia for the aggression, and BSP MEPs strictly adhere to this political line.

“The decision whether I will run depends on whether I can continue the battles that I have fought for the last five years for my country and whether I will get support for it, namely – stopping uncontrolled migration; stopping human trafficking; working measures against corruption at national and European level; protection of journalists from censorship and political persecution,” Yoncheva said.

Ninova, on the other hand, said she was surprised not by the nomination but by the “arrogance of making this public”.

“Sooner or later, dependencies come to light. This explains why our relationship with Elena Yoncheva ended a long time ago,” Ninova added.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)