LIKE rival teams in a sand castle building competition, political parties are scrambling to build coalitions ahead of the summer elections for Parliament.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) this week started mulling over the format of the left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria.
After a meeting of the party leadership on January 18, it was announced that apart from the parties from the New Left, the coalition will include the Communist Party of Bulgaria, two left-wing agrarian parties, the Roma party, the Trakia club and, the BSP hopes, the eco Green Party and representatives of citizens formations.
According to BSP deputy leader Rumen Petkov, the party needs an ecological element in its coalition and would invite the Green Party, which got 45 000 votes in the previous election, to join.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the bTV morning talk show, the leader of the Oborishte Movement, Tosho Peikov, advanced a conspiracy theory regarding BSP leader Sergei Stanishev.
According to Peikov, factions within the BSP led Stanishev into a trap by raising the issue of the debt of third-world countries to Bulgaria and are now undermining his bid to become the next prime minister.
Peikov showed in the bTV studio a document purportedly signed by Stanishevs father, Dimitar Stanishev, who was a high party functionary during the communist regime, donating weapons, ammunitions and other materials to Nicaragua.
Peikov advanced the theory that Sergei Stanishev did not sign the demand for the formation of a Parliamentary committee of inquiry, to investigate transactions regarding debts of third-world countries to Bulgaria, because his father was involved in such debts coming into existence.
Meanwhile, right-wing parties this week were still trying to overcome their differences and to form a coalition before the elections.
It appears that the two major rivals, the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) are getting closer in their views regarding the forming of a coalition.
After a series of controversies surrounding Sofia mayor and leader of the Union of the Free Democrats (UFD) Stefan Sofianski the refuse collection drama, the street dogs problems and the controversies around the sale of the Municipal Bank UDF leader Nadezhda Mihailova appeared to be less willing to invite Sofianskis party into the coalition.
She said she was surprised by Sofianskis announcement that he plans to become an MP and said that, as mayor, he owed Sofians a lot more.
In a statement this week Mihailova said she would fight against Simeon Saxe-Coburg getting a second term of office as Prime Minister. Mihailovas statement represents a shift from the view within the UDF that anything goes, including a post-election coalition with the National Movement Simeon II (NMSII), in order to stop the BSP from taking power.
By her statement, Mihailova brought the official UDF stance closer to the position of the most courted right-wing party leader, Anastasia Mozer.
Mozer, whose party, the Bulgarian Agrarian Peoples Union Peoples Union (BAPU-PU), has been invited to join both the coalition of the UDF and of the DSB, appears to have differences with the party leadership on the subject of Sofianskis UFD.
In an interview with Radio New Europe on January 17, she scolded her subordinates and accused them of lack of principles, after a decision by the managerial board of the party to form a right-wing coalition after keeping its commitments to the UFD and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO).
Mozer disagreed with this decision and said that she would have talks both with the DSB and the UDF and would then consider all possibilities and choose the best one.
While Mihailova was holding preliminary talks with the BAPU-PU leader, DSB leader Ivan Kostov made Mozer a specific and lucrative offer.
On January 19, Kostov gave to Mozer and Democratic Party (DP) leader Alexander Pramatarski a deadline of the end of this month to join him and form a new coalition United Democratic Forces (UtDF) together with the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party (BSDP).
In the first part of the coalition agreement, the DSB put down the general principles on which the four parties have so far agreed that the UtDF government carried out the bulk of reforms between 1997 and 2001 and that it had been the best for the country so far, and that the four parties are a firm opposition to the NMSII Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) government, and that they would do everything possible to stop this government from having a second term.
The four goals set out in the proposed agreement are the formation of a UtDF coalition, stopping the BSP from taking the power, not allowing Saxe-Coburg a second term in office, and not participating in a second NMSII government.
Meanwhile, in his speech on the occasion of the MRF 15th anniversary, MRF leader Ahmed Dogan said the election campaign would be rough.
Dogan said that the next government would have at its disposal the considerable resources of 20 billion euro, and that parties would not be able to gain enough seats in Parliament to form a non-coalition government.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) this week started mulling over the format of the left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria.
After a meeting of the party leadership on January 18, it was announced that apart from the parties from the New Left, the coalition will include the Communist Party of Bulgaria, two left-wing agrarian parties, the Roma party, the Trakia club and, the BSP hopes, the eco Green Party and representatives of citizens formations.
According to BSP deputy leader Rumen Petkov, the party needs an ecological element in its coalition and would invite the Green Party, which got 45 000 votes in the previous election, to join.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the bTV morning talk show, the leader of the Oborishte Movement, Tosho Peikov, advanced a conspiracy theory regarding BSP leader Sergei Stanishev.
According to Peikov, factions within the BSP led Stanishev into a trap by raising the issue of the debt of third-world countries to Bulgaria and are now undermining his bid to become the next prime minister.
Peikov showed in the bTV studio a document purportedly signed by Stanishevs father, Dimitar Stanishev, who was a high party functionary during the communist regime, donating weapons, ammunitions and other materials to Nicaragua.
Peikov advanced the theory that Sergei Stanishev did not sign the demand for the formation of a Parliamentary committee of inquiry, to investigate transactions regarding debts of third-world countries to Bulgaria, because his father was involved in such debts coming into existence.
Meanwhile, right-wing parties this week were still trying to overcome their differences and to form a coalition before the elections.
It appears that the two major rivals, the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) are getting closer in their views regarding the forming of a coalition.
After a series of controversies surrounding Sofia mayor and leader of the Union of the Free Democrats (UFD) Stefan Sofianski the refuse collection drama, the street dogs problems and the controversies around the sale of the Municipal Bank UDF leader Nadezhda Mihailova appeared to be less willing to invite Sofianskis party into the coalition.
She said she was surprised by Sofianskis announcement that he plans to become an MP and said that, as mayor, he owed Sofians a lot more.
In a statement this week Mihailova said she would fight against Simeon Saxe-Coburg getting a second term of office as Prime Minister. Mihailovas statement represents a shift from the view within the UDF that anything goes, including a post-election coalition with the National Movement Simeon II (NMSII), in order to stop the BSP from taking power.
By her statement, Mihailova brought the official UDF stance closer to the position of the most courted right-wing party leader, Anastasia Mozer.
Mozer, whose party, the Bulgarian Agrarian Peoples Union Peoples Union (BAPU-PU), has been invited to join both the coalition of the UDF and of the DSB, appears to have differences with the party leadership on the subject of Sofianskis UFD.
In an interview with Radio New Europe on January 17, she scolded her subordinates and accused them of lack of principles, after a decision by the managerial board of the party to form a right-wing coalition after keeping its commitments to the UFD and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO).
Mozer disagreed with this decision and said that she would have talks both with the DSB and the UDF and would then consider all possibilities and choose the best one.
While Mihailova was holding preliminary talks with the BAPU-PU leader, DSB leader Ivan Kostov made Mozer a specific and lucrative offer.
On January 19, Kostov gave to Mozer and Democratic Party (DP) leader Alexander Pramatarski a deadline of the end of this month to join him and form a new coalition United Democratic Forces (UtDF) together with the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party (BSDP).
In the first part of the coalition agreement, the DSB put down the general principles on which the four parties have so far agreed that the UtDF government carried out the bulk of reforms between 1997 and 2001 and that it had been the best for the country so far, and that the four parties are a firm opposition to the NMSII Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) government, and that they would do everything possible to stop this government from having a second term.
The four goals set out in the proposed agreement are the formation of a UtDF coalition, stopping the BSP from taking the power, not allowing Saxe-Coburg a second term in office, and not participating in a second NMSII government.
Meanwhile, in his speech on the occasion of the MRF 15th anniversary, MRF leader Ahmed Dogan said the election campaign would be rough.
Dogan said that the next government would have at its disposal the considerable resources of 20 billion euro, and that parties would not be able to gain enough seats in Parliament to form a non-coalition government.
