Bulgarian Right Wingers Threaten to Challenge N-Plant Referendum

Bulgarian right wing party Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) has reiterated its threat that it would refer the referendum on the fate of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project to the Constitutional Court.

On Friday, the parliamentary Blue Coalition, which includes DSB, requested from Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev to ask the Constitutional Court to elaborate on the upcoming referendum.

"This is not a question of national significance, but a single investment project," DSB leader and Blue Coalition co-chair Ivan Kostov pointed out on Sunday, arguing that the Bulgarian Constitution does not allow referendums to be scheduled on the country's financial and budget issues.

In an interview for TV 7, Kostov noted that if people are asked whether the country should run into debts it cannot afford they would always say "Yes."

"I find it counter-constitutional," he said.

According to the law, the Constitutional Court must act on the request of at least one fifth on the Members of the Parliament, (48), or the President, the Cabinet, the Supreme Courts of Cassations, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Chief Prosecutor.

The Blue Coalition has 14 MPs.

Bulgaria's centrist-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, government scrapped the Belene NPP project in March 2012, declaring it economically unfeasible. The pro-Belene Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, then launched a petition for a referendum on the Russian-Bulgarian project's fate.

The inspection of the petition recently concluded, with 543 639 valid signatures, enough to make the vote irreversible.

The referendum is expected to take place within the next three months.