Desislav Chukolov, Deputy Chair of Ataka, has termed the bomb threat alert at the nationalist party's headquarters as a provocation staged by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said that it had received the bomb threat call but the search of the premises had yielded no traces of explosives.

In his media statement, Chukolov referred to center-right party GERB, Borisov and Tsvetanov as "thieves of state subsidies", commenting on Wednesday's departure of four Ataka MPs, which left the nationalist formation with a total of 10 members, the bare minimum required for a parliamentary group.

The nationalist party's Deputy Chair claimed that Borisov and Tsvetanov were executing the "mandate of US Ambassador James Warlick for the eradication of Ataka".

After the inspection carried out by the the Directorate of Operational and Technical Information (DOTI) showed that there was no bomb on the premises, the management of the party decided to postpone by one day the congress that had been scheduled to take place there on Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Ataka member and legal expert Yavor Notev cautioned that a failure to hold the party congress on December 21 would result in a breach of the provisions of the Election Code, which would prevent Ataka from participating in the next elections.

Notev agreed that the bomb warning had been a provocation staged by those interested in sabotaging the congress and eventually seeing the party disbanded.

Meanwhile Ataka MP Ventsislav Lakov attributed Wednesday's departure of MPs to plans to hit the party's official mouthpieces, the Ataka newspaper and the Alfa TV station, which he said were the only media outlets to air coverage of its stance.

Lakov explained that one MP brought BGN 17 000 in state subsidies per month, meaning that Ataka's parliamentary group would lose BGN 200 000 in three months, if the four renegade MPs decided to redirect the money to another formation.

The nationalist party voiced suspicions that the state subsidies for the four MPs would go to GERB.

Ataka's party congress will only be attended by the state-owned Bulgarian National Television (BNT), the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), the Ataka newspaper and the Alfa TV station and outlets and Channel 3.

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