Parliamentary Brawl over Bulgaria's Conservatives 'Fake' List

Politics » DOMESTIC | January 14, 2011, Friday // 14:49
Parliamentary Brawl over Bulgaria's Conservatives Fake Signature List: Parliamentary Brawl over Bulgaria's Conservatives 'Fake' List The co-Chair of the GERB parliamentary group, Iskra Fidosova, accuses the Conservatives of manipulations and pressure of common people. Photo by BGNES

The alleged fake signatures list of the conservative Order, Law and Justice Party (RZS) for calling a national referendum stirred the latest scandal in Bulgaria Friday.

On Thursday, the National Agency for State Security (DANS) sent a letter to the speaker of the Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, informing her the Conservatives' list for convening a new Great General Assembly to work on a new Constitution, was full of violations and personal data abuse.

In plenary hall Friday, the RZS leader, Yane Yanev, accused DANS of lying, stating he has information the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party and their closest ally, the far-right, nationalist Ataka party have sent their own people to entr wrong information in order to manipulate the list.

Yanev compared DANS to Gestapo because, as he says, they ordered illegal searches in 757 Bulgarian homes, without a prosecutor's warrant, adding he called already the DANS Director, Tsvetlin Yovchev, to ask for explanations.

The Conservative explained Yovchev told him DANS has been warned by the Parliament, interpreting the information as a GERB-manufactured slander. The RZS leader explained the 90 signatures from abroad with publishing the ad in foreign media and stressed it would be impossible to check all 600 000 signatures.

The Conservative leader stated DANS has started the probe to divert attention for the party's "Stop the Spying" campaign and threatened GERB their actions would have "a heavy boomerang effect."

GERB struck back, appealing to the authorities to further probe the RZS activities and for criminal penalties in the case.

"These are people with murky behavior and reputation, and there is no room for them in Bulgarian politics. The fake signatures of the GERB Member of the Parliament, Vladimit Toshev, and his wife, are extreme political cynicism. If these people today manipulate signatures and recordings; pressure common people, and blow smoke, what would they be able to do tomorrow? And because the failed leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Sergey Stanishev, calls the MPs a "herd," I propose to him to join RZS and form the group of puppeteers and manipulators" the co-Chair of the GERB parliamentary group, Iskra Fidosova, declared.

Stanishev countered the Socialists and the Conservatives strongly differ and BSP opposes calls for a referendum and a new Constitution. The former PM, who established DANS during his term, further asked how was it possible for the Agency to deal with matters such as a signatures' list and tour private homes.

Ataka and its leader, Volen Siderov, joined GERB in calls for prosecuting the Conservatives and for lifting Yanev's parliamentary immunity. Siderov said the fake signatures are proof RZS are ready to commit any kind of fraud such as releasing fake recordings of conversations between top politicians. (Yanev is associated with Aleksei Petrov, and considered his closest ally.)

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Tags: Volen Siderov, Ataka, Sergey Stansishev, BSP, Iskra Fidosova, Aleksei Petrov, false, Great General Assembly, Tsetska Tsacheva, DANS, national referendum, signatures list, Yane Yanev, RZS, GERB

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