Bulgaria's former European Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, has said her party's call for boycott of the upcoming referendum on the fate of nuclear energy in the country is a protest against the hypocrisy of the ruling party.

"Bulgaria will hold its true referendum in the summer, when the general elections will take place. The fake referendum just serves the political cartel," Kuneva, founder and leader of "Bulgaria for Citizens Movement" said in an interview for Novinite.com.

"Half a year before the general elections the ruling GEBR party and the Socialists want to take voters out to the polling stations, only to tell them later on the results are not valid. Thus they want to convince people that elections make no difference, that there is no point in casting a ballot."

The nuclear referendum has been scheduled for January 27.

According to Kuneva the ruling GERB, ethnic Turkish DPS and Socialist BSP parties need a low turnout at the general elections next year "because vote buying and manipulations work only when people refuse to come out to vote."

High turnout at the elections will benefit only "Bulgaria for Citizens Movement", she added.

"We are calling on Bulgarians to boycott the upcoming referendum on the fate of nuclear energy in the country. This is an appeal against hypocrisy, against dishonest policy and against behind-the-stage haggling."

Kuneva pointed out that even members of the Socialist Party, who collected signatures to initiate the referendum, have reason to boycott it, because the question is different from what they had originally signed up to.

The referendum was originally intended to revive the abandoned Belene nuclear power plant. However, the ruling centrist-right GERB removed any specific reference to the Belene project in the referendum question.

FULL text of the interview with Meglena Kuneva READ HERE

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