It is little surprise that reactions to the announcement that the ruling party would back the holding of a national referendum on whether the public broadcaster should continue daily brief news bulletins in Turkish included disbelief.

The campaign to abolish these bulletins has been a pet issue for ultra-nationalists Ataka for several years, a drive flavoured more by ethnic hatred than by patriotic protection of the Bulgarian language.

Presumably, the ruling party’s decision was motivated less by its stated wish to settle the issue democratically for once and for all than by a political deal to get Ataka’s votes in Parliament on some other legislative measure. Critics who have said that if Bulgaria really wants to hold a referendum, there are more important issues on which to do so, are correct.

Such a referendum is certain to look more like an exercise in intolerance than in democracy, and making a mountain out of this Turkish molehill gives the lie to the much-boasted Bulgarian model of ethnic tolerance.

The move to hold a referendum is likely only to serve the interests of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which for years has made cynical use of its self-appointed place as the guardian of the ethnic Turkish minority in Bulgaria. Worse, removal of the bulletins could be exploited by those of ill-will who seek to nurture radical Islam, a risk that should be avoided in a country that for years has prided itself on its stability. People who have a sense of alienation foisted on them are fodder for those with evil intent.

It is unlikely that the proposal to go ahead with such a referendum will wear well with those in the West in general and the European Union in particular who make it their business to be on the alert for any actions against human rights and religious and ethnic tolerance.

And finally, it is hardly palatable that an economy that can hardly afford to pay even the most minimal bonuses to pensioners, or to come up with the funds to pay for roads to be cleared of snow – among many other important items – should be drained of the 18 million leva that, reportedly, this ridiculous referendum would cost.