An amateur video recording of a speech delivered by Ahmed Dogan, leader of one of the three ruling parties The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), caused yet another row about how the MRF leader sees his place in Bulgarian politics.

"The power is concentrated in me, not in your MP who can not solve problems but only adopt laws," Dogan told his supporters.

He goes on saying; "I am the instrument of power, who distributes the bits of financing in the state."

The video was first shown on June 25 2009 by private national Nova Televisia and was later quoted by local media. It shows Dogan talking to MRF supporters in Kochan village on June 18 2009, at an election meeting ahead of the July 5 elections.

One of Dogan's previous revelations about the way Bulgarian politics worked was in 2005, just before Parliament elections. In his words, every political party had a circle of companies that served each other's interests. 

This is an edited transcript of Dogan's speech on June 18 2009:

Members of Parliament don't have power. Their power is a legislative one, they create laws. An MP has to be very popular, to have ties with cabinet ministers and other informal contacts so that he can become an instrument of power and solve problems.

How can an MP solve the problem with EU projects and funding? It is not possible. The power is in my hands. This is what I want to tell you. I am the instrument of power, who distributes the bits of financing in the state. I want you to see this very clearly, because this is an important issue.

It is important from the point of view of EU projects, their realisation, EU operational programmes etc.

And when we want more people in Parliament this means that we want better positions in Parliament and from there in the executive power, gentlemen. This is done so that I can have instruments of power such as cabinet ministers, heads of state agencies etc.

The power is concentrated in me, not in your MP. I want you to know this.