Activists, analysts and officials from various circles in Bulgaria have come to question the authenticity of the recently student protest movement.

Last week, it emerged that famous Bulgarian football player Hristo Stoichkov has been chosen and agreed to be the face of the new movement, founded under the Orlov Most (Eagles Bridge) monicker.

Monday the student movement Promyana (Change) issued a statement that the new movement is hardly backed by the majority of Bulgaria's college and university students.

Promyana activist Dimitar Todorov said that controversial former ruling party GERB MP Emil Dimitrov might be standing behind the new organization.

"We have the full respect for Hristo Stoichkov's biography as a football player, but he is a self-declared friend of Emil Dimitrov and former PM Boyko Borisov," said Todorov.

The new student movement, organized by Bulgaria's National Organization of Student Councils (NPSS), is trying to position itself as part of a broader wave of protests asking for change in Bulgaria, which toppled Borisov's cabinet in February.

Sunday's flashy inauguration ceremony held in Sofia's Arena Armeets Hall provoked the suspicion of some media outlets, which questioned who paid for the event.

According to NPSS, it received funds as donation from Stoichkov, but the Arena Armeets office said that the rent was paid by the student union itself.

Emil Dimitrov was suspected to stand behind the formalization of the Eagles Bridge initiative right from the start, as a move to 'hijack' June 2012 Eagles' Bridge protests against controversial amendments to Bulgaria's Forestry Act.

In 2012 Dimitrov, who has interests in the timber and hunting industries, vehemently opposed protests against the Forestry Act.

He joined ranks with people such as controversial businessman Tseko Minev, who has interests in the ski industry, and Bulgaria's top winter resort mayor Georgi Ikonomov, in heralding so-called 'counter-protests' in support of the amendments.

Eagles Bridge activists from June 2012 have dismissed the founding of the Eagles Bridge movement as cynical.

The new students movement has been backed by one of the many leaders of Bulgaria's February 2013 pro-change protests, Yanaki Ganchev.

Monday Sofia University rector Prof. Ivan Ilchev added to doubts cast over the movement, by denouncing claims by NPSS secretary Hristian Daskalov that Ilchev had voiced support for the initiative.

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