The partner in the tripartite ruling coalition, the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), interpreted its results at the June 7 2009 elections for Bulgarian members of European Parliament (EP) as a great success ahead of the July 5 2009 elections for the Bulgarian Parliament.

At a June 8 2009 news conference NMSP leader and former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said that the two seats NMSP won at the MEP elections have showed that the party had led a positive campaign. Most of all, he thanked Meglena Kouneva for her contribution to the result.

Kouneva, who has been enjoying great popularity in Bulgaria in her capacity as European Commissioner for consumer rights protection, headed the NMSP election ticket. This, according to many analysts, explained why the NMSP got two seats in EP.

Antonia Purvanova was second on the ticket. For a few hours after the end of election day, preliminary results indicated that only Kouneva had gone through. When elections authorities started publishing official results it was announced that Purvanova had also won a seat in EP at the expense of the right-wing Blue Coalition who was left with just one MEP.

Because of this development the Blue Coalition asked for a manual recount of the votes since results showed that the coalition was just 361 votes behind the NMSP. The Blue Coalition also accused the NMSP of vote trading with the other partner in the ruling coalition, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF).

Saxe-Coburg refused to comment on the Blue Coalition's accusations. He merely said that anyone "can build whatever fantasies they want" and that the Blue Coalition's request for a manual recount of the votes is "their right and there are institutions who have duties in this respect".

He said it was too early to talk about NMSP's plans for the upcoming elections for Bulgarian Parliament on July 5 and about who would be on the party's ticket and based on what criteria.

When asked about her plans as an MEP, amid media speculation that she might run for a second term as EU commissioner, Kouneva said that she was indeed still thinking about her future and she still had a month, until the new EP starts work, to decide. If she decides not to go to EP they would send the third person on NMSP's ticket, Stanimir Ilchev, instead.

"He hasn't asked me this question yet and I don't think that this is the time to take decisions," she said, noting that whatever she decides she would continue working as a European politician.

Antonia Purvanova said that the NMSP had shunned populist messages during the campaign which "would have misled our supporters that we could do more than we can in the European Parliament, such as raising pensions or switching back on nuclear reactors at Kozloduy nuclear power plant".