Ethnic Turks' Support Could 'Sink' Kuneva's Presidential Bid – Analysts

Politics » DOMESTIC | June 6, 2011, Monday // 13:45
Bulgaria: Ethnic Turks' Support Could 'Sink' Kuneva's Presidential Bid – Analysts Support from ethnic Turkish party DPS could cast a shadow over Meglena Kuneva`s predisential bid, Bulgarian social and political scientists have agreed. Photo by BGNES

Support form Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) could sink the presidential bid of ex EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, according to political and social scientists.

This hypothesis, voiced by sociologist Mira Radeva during Friday`s morning broadcast of Nova TV, was further echoed by political scientists Rumyana Kolarova and Tanya Burudzhieva.

These comments come at at time when Kuneva, Bulgaria's first and former EU Commissioner, officially announced she would join the 2011 presidential race. Before being assigned the consumer protection portfolio by EC President Barroso, Kuneva was an MP from the National Movement for Stability and Prosperity (NSMP), a party formed by Simeon Saxe-Coburg, Bulgaria's ex Tsar and ex Prime Minister.

Andrey Raychev of the BBSS Gallup International polling agency was the only one to say that Kuneva was likely to seek support from DPS and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), who, in their turn, would most probably reach the conclusion that they could not back the candidate alone.

"She is a centrist candidate. This means that the biggest problem she will be facing will be how to make it to the run-off. From that point on, there will be no complications. The majority of candidates need to address the problem of what to do at the second round, not before that. If Kuneva makes it to the run-off, she is the winner, because she will be able to garner the support of all other parties that favor her bid and whose candidates have dropped out", Raychev believes.

According to Rumyana Kolarova, Meglena Kuneva is currently seeking support from political parties, which she will keep doing, in order to avoid difficulties with financing her candidacy.

"Doubts will emerge that Kuneva is supported by oligarchic interests. Her personality is not very strong in the pre-election campaign, which would have been the case if she was a MEP. But her current position is one of a clerk, of a person who has opted for a carrer in administration", Kolarova said.

In her words, these elections give the former EU Commissioner the chance to return to Bulgaria's political scene after failing to settle on an EU level.

Political scientist Tanya Burudzhieva claimed that Kuneva could have said earlier she was running for president, given that she considers her nomination a non-party one. She criticized Bulgaria's former EU Commissioner for keeping silent about her presidential ambitions despite her intensified media appearances.

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Tags: Meglena Kuneva, EC President, Barroso, ethnic Turkish party, DPS, Movement for Rights and Freedoms, NMSP, National Movement for Stability and Prosperity, Saxe-Coburg, Tanya Burudzhieva, Andrey Raychev, Gallup International

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