Newly-elected Bulgarian MEPs prefer domestic politics, eye new government

3 months ago 10

Several political heavyweights elected last weekend to represent Bulgaria in the European Parliament announced on Thursday that they would stick to domestic politics, with some expected to join the new Bulgarian government.

Bulgaria held early parliamentary elections as well as an EU vote on 9 June, with many key party figures on both national and EU lists, giving politicians the opportunity to decide after the vote what position to take depending on the outcome.

For example, Rosen Zhelyazkov, leader of the conservative GERB-SDS list (EPP) and speaker of the previous Bulgarian parliament, has announced that he will give up his seat in the European Parliament in order to remain in the national parliament.

According to unofficial information obtained by Euractiv Bulgaria, Zhelyazkov is one of the options for a future Bulgarian prime minister after GERB won the elections with a convincing lead.

GERB will have five of Bulgaria’s 17 MEPs after winning 23.55% of the vote in the EU elections. Next came the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS/Renew Europe) with three MEPs, ‘We Continue the Change’ (Renew) with two, the far right ‘Vazrazhdane’ (ID) with three, BSP (S&D) – two, and ‘There is Such a People’ ITN (NI) and ‘Democratic Bulgaria’ (EPP) with one each.

GERB will send to the European Parliament its current MEPs Andrey Kovachev, Andrey Novakov, Emil Radev, Eva Maydell and a newcomer, Iliya Lazarov from GERB’s small coalition partner SDS.

The centrist ‘We Continue the Change’ campaiged in coalition with Democratic Bulgaria, but the two formations come from different political families—the Liberals and the EPP.

‘We Continue the Change’ won two MEP seats to join the Renew Europe group: Nikola Minchev, former speaker of the National Assembly, and the famous Bulgarian rapper Hristo Petrov, better known by his nickname Itso Hazarta.

Meanwhile, Democratic Bulgaria will count with the active presence in the European Parlaiemnt of MEP Radan Kanev, a rapporteur for the industry pact in the previous legislature.

‘Vazrazhdane’s MEPs will be Stanislav Stoyanov, Rada Laikova and Peter Volgin, a well-known pro-Kremlin journalist, who is the absolute champion of the EU preferencial vote, with 72 000 preferences for him personally.

‘Vazrazhdane’ has already announced that it wants to create a sovereignist group in the EU Parliament. It would also invite the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was recently kicked out of the ID group.

In addition, as the co-leader of the pro-European minority party DPS, Javdet Chakurov, and the movement’s long-serving MEP, Iskra Mihaylova, gave up their MEP seats, leaving room for former investigative journalist Elena Yoncheva. In the previous mandate, Yoncheva was an MEP for the Bulgarian Socialist Party (S&D). She has often taken pro-Russian positions and is now on the list of a party with a strongly pro-Western stance.

The other DPS MEPs will be Ilhan Kyuchyuk, co-president of the ALDE party, and a newxomer, Taner Kabilov.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (S&D) will be represented in the EU Parliament by former foreign minister Kristian Vigenin and its former MEP Tsvetelina Penkova.

ITN’s MEP will be Ivaylo Valchev. The party doesn’t have a political affiliation yet.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)