New Bulgarian government looking to hinge on collapse of pro-Russian party

3 months ago 21

The rapid collapse of the pro-Russian radical party Greatness will likely determine the successful formation of a regular Bulgarian government after the country headed to polls for its sixth parliamentary election in three years earlier last month.

On Monday, former prime minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party, which won the election, announced that it would propose a minority all-party government and nominated his long-time associate Rossen Zhelyazkov as prime minister.

The GERB government is backed by the minority Turkish party Movements for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), led by businessman Delyan Peevski, who has been sanctioned by the US and the UK for corruption. The two parties have 115 MPs and 121 votes are needed to elect a government.

This has brought into the public spotlight the rapid collapse of the smallest party in parliament, the pro-Russian radical nationalist formation Greatness, which could become a donor of support for GERB and DPS.

Greatness has 13 MPs and managed to get into the Bulgarian parliament by running a social media-focused campaign, with its leaders extensively using conspiracy theories and pro-Russian narratives to rally supporters.

Once in parliament, the party quickly began a process of disintegration, with mutual accusations that MPs had “sold out” to GERB and DPS despite the party’s opposition to Borissov and Delyan Peevski’s influence in Bulgarian politics.

On Monday, Greatness founder Ivelin Mihaylov said that MPs had told him that they had received offers to support the GERB government in return for ministerial posts.

“I was told that there is an offer in which we (Greatness) can take a ministry to show what we can do,” Mihaylov, who decided not to become an MP, has said, claiming that party leader Nikolai Markov, known by his nickname “the Colonel”, had threatened him with bodily harm.

“Colonel Nikolai Markov threatened me with physical destruction. He said I would not be able to find a place for myself in any part of the world,” Mihaylov told Nova TV.

Mihaylov also claims that some Greatness MPs have probably betrayed the party’s ideas and announced their willingness to support the government’s election, adding that he has an audio recording in which party MPs can be heard saying that they “will support a programme government”.

“On difficult days, the wise are silent, the stupid speak,” Markov wrote on Facebook in response to Mihaylov’s comments.

On Monday, the party’s press office said there was no split in its parliamentary group.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)