Bulgarian Migrants Set Up Party to Help Home Country

More than six hundreds delegates, primarily Bulgarians living abroad, laid on Sunday the foundations of a brand new party on the political horizon of their home country, indicatively called "The Other Bulgaria".

Named after a popular TV show that tracks the lives of Bulgarian migrants in different parts of the world, the party sets out to pool the potential of Bulgarians abroad and the formation of Bulgarian lobbies around the world.

Bozhidar Tomalevski, chair of the initiative committee, said the idea was brought into being eight years ago.

"Our meetings with Bulgarian migrants in Belgium, Spain and Greece gave us the confidence that this party is needed. We are here to promote a new model, because we want Bulgaria to be different, we want it to be what we want it to be," said Tomalevski, who was part of the election campaign of the former king party in 2001, when Simeon Saxe-Coburg swept the vote.

The party called for the introduction of e-vote which, they believe, will guarantee equal voting rights for all Bulgarian citizens, living here or abroad; upgrade in the work of the trade attaches in Bulgaria's diplomatic missions, crack-down on corruption and organized crime; reforms in the judicial system and the security services.