Wilfred Martens: Borissov Is Bulgaria’s Next PM

„Everyone agreed that Boyko Borissov should be Bulgaria’s next prime-minister, no opinions differ on this”, EPP Chairman Wilfred Martens said after the breakfast he had with leaders of the Bulgarian EPP member-parties in the Kempinski Hotel in Sofia. Martens is on a visit to Bulgaria upon the invitation of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB) party. He arrived in the country on Sunday and gave his first statement on Monday morning following a conversation with the leadership of Sofia mayor’s formation.

“If we agree on Boyko Borissov becoming the next prime minister or not, is a question that has never been asked.
EPP leader Wilfred Martens is absolutely definite on this, and he said he wanted Borissov to win the elections.

“This is the person, who has to be the next Bulgarian premier,” head of the Democratic Party (DP), Alexander Pramatarski told Bulgaria News. He also explained Martens had tried to persuade none of Bulgaria’s right leaders to agree on Borissov’s future power, as EPP was fully aware of the fact that CEDB is the leading rightist party in Bulgaria while the rest formations do not command the support they need to get significant parliamentary majority at the forthcoming elections.

That’s why Pramatarski stated before his colleagues and Martens that all Bulgarian EPP member-parties should run for the parliamentary elections together, because
right-wingers in Bulgaria have only had won elections they participated as a coalition   
and if they divided now, this could not bring them the majority of 121 seats in the next Parliament. As a motive for his statements he pointed out the latest research of the National Center for Public Opinion Surveys, which revealed CEDB is the leading party in Bulgaria, Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) and the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) were on the edge of the four-percent election barrier and the rest of the right-wingers had no chances to enter the Parliament at all.

“European leaders do not speak in an imperative manner so we could say Mr. Martens expressed his position as a piece of advice but there was no doubt he backes Boyko Borissov and CEDB”, Pramatarski added.

Borissov however has firmly declared CEDB is to run for the elections independently. On his side, DSB leader Ivan Kostov explained he is forming a rightist coalition for the parliamentary vote as the idea itself will be realized later on in the 41st National Assembly.

The two leaders of divided agrarians – Anastasia Mozer from the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union-People’s Union (BAPU-PU) and Stefan Lichev from the Agrarian People’s Union (APU), also joined the breakfast with Martens. They did not express certain positions, though.

The EPP leadership is firmly backing CEDB and Boyko Borissov for a long time now. At the beginning of last year, when the party joined the EPP under a fast procedure, Secretary General Antonio Lopez said the Bulgarian capital’s mayor should become prime minister of the country. During the latest session of EPP’s Political Bureau the party has confirmed that opinion saying they respect the other member-parties but still rely on CEDB.

Their bios is fully explicable as the European Union is to hold MEP elections this year and
CEDB sent five members to EPP’s faction after the first such vote in Bulgaria.

The results of the forthcoming MEP elections will be sort of a litmus for the future EPP’s attitude toward Bulgaria’s rightist formations.