GERB, MRF and WCC-DB agree on budget and Russian oil
GERB, MRF and WCC-DB surprisingly agreed on the budget for the next year as well as whether Bulgaria should give up the import of Russian oil, with GERB and MRF choosing to support WCC-DD's stance that the derogation should continue until March.
The news was announced by Desislava Atanasova and Temenuzhka Petkova from GERB, Yordan Tsonev from MRF and WCC's Minister of Finance Assen Vassilev in the National Assembly today. Vassilev expressly thanked Petkova and Tsonev for the "constructive conversations" they had had on the budget.
The quartet did not take questions about the surprise agreement. The consensus followed a stormy fortnight that had seen attacks by GERB and MRF on WCC-DB and a recent parliamentary boycott of a no-confidence in the Denkov-Gabriel cabinet. MRF's Delyan Peevski had also warned that the coalition was becoming unstable.
Anti-BFF protests turn bloody as WCC demand Interior Minister's head
Protests against the leadership of the Bulgarian Football Federation (BFF) on Thursday night saw bloody scenes and a total of 33 people detained.
Police tactics have also been questioned after videos surfaced of officers beating civilians for merely being engaged in peaceful protest. Seven people were hospitalized and another 24 were treated by emergency medics while many others fled the protest with injuries. WCC-DB have since requested the formal resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kalin Stoyanov, from GERB.
Meanwhile, chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov announced the prosecutor's office will begin an investigation of the BFF as well as its embattled head, Borislav Mihaylov.
Peevski to run for MRF leader
Delyan Peevski announced today that he will run for the post of chairman of MRF, vacated at the beginning of the month by Mustafa Karadai. He added that any member of the MRF can apply, but did not name other candidates. He pledged that MRF would have a leader by the national conference scheduled for February 24.
There have been major changes in the MRF leadership recently. After Karadai's resignation, today's meeting of the party's Central Council witnessed the resignations of the party's deputy chairman Ahmed Akhmedov and the leader of the youth movement Sezgin Mehmed.
Peevski, perhaps underlining his own credentials, made a point of citing earlier praise from the honorary chairman of MRF Ahmed Dogan, who had described him as "a phenomenon".
GERB, MRF and WCC-DB agree on budget and Russian oil
GERB, MRF and WCC-DB surprisingly agreed on the budget for the next year as well as whether Bulgaria should give up the import of Russian oil, with GERB and MRF choosing to support WCC-DD's stance that the derogation should continue until March.
