Van Baalen: 'Fearless' Bulgarian Liberal Party Should Be in Power

Liberal International president Hans Van Baalen offered his support for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, whose leader Ahmed Dogan survived an assassination attempt.

Saturday Van Baalen is in Sofia for the national congress of the liberal movement, at which Dogan was unsuccessfully assaulted.

"We witnessed a fearless man, and a fearless party," stated the liberal leader.

Van Baalen stressed that the problem of terrorism is not endemic in Bulgaria, but is rather global, and recalled recent such attempts in his native Netherlands.

"Bulgaria and the EU are not part of the problem. They are part of the solution," added he.

"I hope that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms gets stronger for upcoming general elections in the summer, and comes to be a part of the next cabinet," said Van Baalen.

Currently the Movement is out of power, but 2005-9 it was a partner in the three way coalition cabinet led by Bulgarian Socialist Party chair Sergey Stanishev.

The Movement has been traditionally supported predominantly by Bulgaria's sizeable Turkish minority.