Ivan Kostov, leader of the right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, DSB, party and Co-Chair of the Blue Coalition, has called for the resignation of Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

"We have every reason to seek Tsvetan Tsvetanov's withdrawal from the political scene", the rightist leader said Wednesday, adding that Tsvetanov was involved in a three-fold conflict of interest by virtue of his posts as Interior Minister and head of GERB's election campaign headquarters and as a person striving to control EU funds for Roma integration.

Kostov was adamant that no one had ever had the nerve to get involved in such a drastic conflict of interest like Tsvetanov, especially against the backdrop of pre-election dealings mentioned by Roma clan leader Kiril Rashkov.

The DSB leader went on to accuse Tsvetanov of trying to take advantage from the dependence of Roma barons which had used EU money to build luxury estates without getting punished by the Interior Ministry.

Kostov noted that DSB interpreted the actions of the center-right ruling GERB party as an attempt to buy the Roma community's vote or to oust the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, party and the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, from the control over the Roma votes.

The indirect effect for the Ataka-GERB coalition, Kostov argued, would come from the fact that the "shallow, yet shrill voices of nationalist party Ataka" were making themselves heard among "disoriented voters of Bulgarian ethnicity".

"I call them shallow because they have not offered one single political solution to one single serious problem. This is the "Katunitsa problem". Katunitsa is just one occasion, if it had not happened, something else would have", he stated, commenting on the repercussions of the September 23 hit and run death of 19-year-old ethnic Bulgarian allegedly killed by an associate of Roma clan chief Kiril Rashkov, aka Tsar Kiro.

He also made it clear that DSB expected a "brutal blackmail operation masterminded by GERB targeting the people in control of the Roma community's vote".

In Kostov's words, DPS was certain to emerge a winner from the battle for Roma votes, while BSP would probably end up a loser.

"If GERB conducts a blackmail operation at the elections, it will also win, thereby providing a shot of adrenalin directly to Ataka's weak heart", the Co-Chair of the Blue Coalition commented.

Kostov also said that the ruling party had allowed Ataka's protests to continue even during the session of the Consultative Council for National Security because this brought profits for the "GERB-Ataka coalition".

"GERB stands to benefit from the flare-up of ethnic tensions and from the displays of political extremism because all topics related to the public security collapse, the political collapse and the impact of the crisis, all promises made by GERB, which should have been tabled for discussion, have been forgotten", Kostov stressed.

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