Bulgaria's New Ethnic Turkish Leader: Nuclear Referendum Is Borisov's First Loss

Bulgaria's nuclear referendum on Sunday, in which most of the small number of voters voted in favor, represents the first loss of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, according to Lyutvi Mestan, the new leader of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party DPS.

Along with other key political figures in Bulgaria, Mestan commented Sunday night the results of the referendum, which had a voter turnout of only 22%, with 61% voting in favor of the construction of a second nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, while 39% voted against.

Even though the turnout is not sufficient to make the result of the referendum binding, it is still enough to take the question to the Bulgarian Parliament.

"Unfortunately, it is the ruling party GERB that transferred the issue [for the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant] from the economic field into the field of manipulative politics," commented Mestan, who succeeded Ahmed Dogan, the emblematic founder and leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) just a week ago.

"By changing his position from "yes" to "no", the Prime Minister asked the Bulgarian citizens for a vote of confidence. But they didn't give it to him because they no longer believe him. This is the first big loss of Boyko Borisov. But it won't be his last loss. He is yet to experience his most severe loss – at the parliamentary elections," Mestan stated.

"He must get used to it. Nobody is in power forever," he added.

According to the DPS leader, Borisov made a very big tactical mistake in the midst of the nuclear referendum campaign, and should have stuck to the "undecided" position.