Election Rift Shakes Bulgaria's Right-Wing Blue Coalition

The Bulgarian right-wing Union of Democratic Forces, UDF, registered for participation in the upcoming presidential elections without their long-term coalition partner Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, DSB.

The move comes just one day before the registration deadline. It remains unclear if the Blue Coalition between UDF and DSB will have a joint presidential ballot.

The news was announced by the head of UDF Election Headquarters, Boris Markov, and confirmed by DSB Deputy Chair, Ekaterina Mihaylova.

The newly emerged coalition, which registered with the Central Election Commission, CEC, Thursday morning, includes UDF and 6 other smaller right-wing political formations, among them the United Democratic Forces (ODS) party of former Mayor of Sofia and now again mayoral hopeful, Stefan Sofiyanski, and is called Union of Right-Wing Forces.

Even though he is not yet officially registered as presidential candidate since these applications are being taken by CEC starting next week, the UDF nomination to run for president, Rumen Hristov, is the new Coalition presidential candidate. He won the Blue Coalition nomination in June through an internal vote against the DSB candidate, Svetoslav Malinov.

DSB say they learned about their partners' decision to participate in the presidential election without them through the media, but reminded the new union can fall apart as early as Friday when the deadline for registration with CEC expires.

DSB further declared they will not enter in any other coalition but with UDF, motivating their decision on the May coalition agreement mandating the two parties to not have any registration with CEC other than as Blue Coalition and to not back any other candidate than the one of the latter.

Mihaylova informed that there has been some falling apart in the last few days between the leaders of UDF and DSB, Martin Dimitrov and Ivan Kostov, and the UDF intentions to register with ODS was known since Tuesday.

UDF say the reason for their actions stem from DSB's behavior and Kostov's ego.

"This behavior is mindboggling for us – they want to limit the right-wing Coalition to just two parties which is wrong when it comes to presidential elections," Dimitrov is quoted saying.

The rift in the Blue Coalition emerged last week when it was revealed that DSB were outraged by UDF signing an agreement with ODS for endorsement of the right-wing presidential nomination of Rumen Hristov. They threatened to submit registration documents with the Regional Election Commission (REC) for mayoral elections on their own "in order to not leave Sofia residents without an authentic right-wing candidate."

On Sunday, UDF, however, vowed to stay in the Blue Coalition and fulfill their commitments.