Bulgarian Right Wing Chief: Referendum Formed Red-Brown Union

Bulgaria's first national referendum since 1989 "gave birth" to a new communist-fascist coalition, according to Ivan Kostov.

Kostov, who is the leader of the right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, DSB, and former Prime Minister, spoke Sunday evening after the announcement of exit polls results.

With the coalition comparison, he referred to the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, and its leader, leader of the Party of European Socialists, PES, and former PM, Sergey Stanishev, and the far-right, nationalist Ataka party with leader, Volen Siderov, who shared the opinion that Bulgaria must build second Nuclear Power Plant in the Danube town of Belene.

"Siderov and Stanishev gave their support for the energy oligarchs of Bulgaria. The Cabinet had no ways of spending BGN 21 B for Belene. This would have been a huge waste of taxpayers' money," Kostov, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Energy, declared.

A turnout of 21.8% was announced Bulgaria's Alfa Research polling agency after the closing of the polling sections at 7 pm.

The referendum asks the question "Should nuclear energy be developed in the Republic of Bulgaria through the construction of a new nuclear power plant?"

The vote is binding if the number of votes equals that of votes at the last parliamentary elections, 4,225,124, and if more than half of them vote "yes".

According to the law, if less people vote on the referendum, but if the turnout is over 20%, and more than half of the votes are positive, then the question is tabled for debate to parliament.

The exit polls results mean that now Belene NPP will be put back on the agenda, as the activity slightly exceeded 20%.

61% of the voters have said "yes" to the question; 39% - have cast a "no" ballot.

At 10 am, the Central Electoral Commission had reported a turnout of 2.1%, at 1 pm it rose to 9.34%, and to 17.4% at 5 pm.

The referendum was sponsored by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which gathered a petition of more than the 0.5 million legally needed signatures.

Originally, Belene NPP had to be built by Russian state company Atomstroyexport, but the Bulgarian cabinet froze the project in the early spring of 2012 due to perceived lack of economic effectiveness.