Ex Bulgarian PM Declares Allegiance to Right Wing

The Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, DSB, party announced Friday it will continue to support the nomination of Rumen Hristov as the presidential candidate of the right wing.

The statement comes from a declaration red by DSB leader and former Prime Minister, Ivan Kostov. He also informed that his party will not have their own candidate, despite the fact that their long-term partner in the right-wing Blue Coalition, the Union of Democratic Forces, UDF, registered for participation in the upcoming presidential elections without DSB.

The move came just one day before the registration deadline.

The newly emerged coalition, called Union of Right-Wing Forces, 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.

The UDF nomination to run for president, Rumen Hristov, is the presidential candidate of the new Coalition. He won the Blue Coalition nomination in June through an internal vote against the DSB candidate, Svetoslav Malinov.

"The political will of DSB is to keep the Blue Coalition. Despite our wish, Hristov will be registered as the candidate of another Coalition, not the Blue one. Nevertheless, we declare again that we will not nominate our own candidate for president. We will follow any local agreement for the elections as well. We wish to work for the political success of the Blue Coalition, as an opponent of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, an as a critical alternative of the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party," Kostov said in the declaration.

When asked if the reason for the rift in the Blue Coalition was his ego, as UDF announced, the DSB leader commented he had proved he can swallow offensive words and dismissed reports there are personal conflicts in the Coalition, mainly between him and UDF leader, Martin Dimitrov.

Meanwhile, Dimitrov left the building of the Parliament Friday without commenting on the issue. Right-wing Members of the Parliament also declined comments for the media.