State Subsidy Scandal Erupts at Bulgaria Rightist Party Conference

A scandal regarding distribution of state subsidies has broken out at the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) party conference Tuesday.

The Head Secretary of UDF, Ivan Sotirov, stated that when the rightist Blue Coalition was formed between the UDF and the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) earlier in 2009 financial parameters were set in a pre-coalition written agreement by the party leaders Martin Dimitrov (UDF) and Ivan Kostov (DSB).

Sotirov said that the agreement probably shared finances 50/50 between the parties. He added that because of this agreement the Blue Coalition is the only national party that is not eligible for state subsidies. Sotirov also complained that he had not been allowed access to the alleged written agreement.

Dimitrov denied that there had been such an agreement and said he hoped that the party would reach an agreement on how to approach the state subsidy issue.

On Saturday Sotirov said that Dimitrov has lost trust of most of the UDF members and does not have the right to even in the elections for party leader at the end of November.