Bulgaria’s We Continue the Change party was listed as a member of Renew alongside the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which aroused many questions in Bulgaria because there was no official announcement about the membership. While they were later removed, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov was left on Renew’s website, an action his party called a mistake on Wednesday.
“We Continue the Change has expanded its political presence in Bulgaria, and as a party that is committed to the mission of Bulgaria taking a leading place in the EU, we are in constant contact with potential European partners. Currently, the party is not a member of a European structure, and when a change occurs, it will be officially announced. Such a decision will be made by the National Council of We Continue the Change, and for the moment, there is none,” the party’s position says.
“The decision for We Continue the Change to become a political family member will be taken independently, after consultation with our national bodies. And we do not and will not hold talks with the DPS whether they approve because they are not the gatekeepers of Renew and have no authority in this regard,” Lena Borislavova, a key person from We Continue the Change, told Euractiv.
During the meetings of the European Council, when the leaders of all EU countries gather, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov participates in the leadership meetings of the Renew Europe group.
A year ago, the then-prime minister from We Continue the Change, Kiril Petkov was invited to the meetings of Renew Europe by the French President Emmanuel Macron, as his party had no political family and no MEPs.
At the end of May last year, Petkov announced that the party had an invitation to join the group of European liberals, “Renew Europe”, but there is a problem with the membership of DPS.
A year and a half later, the problem no longer seems so significant because DPS supports a government in which We Continue the Change plays a leading role, as well as judicial reform in the country. And the chairman of the DPS parliamentary group, Delyan Peevski, sanctioned under the “Magnitsky” act, seems no longer to bother the We Continue the Change.
In June, Denkov attended the leadership meeting of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats after Petkov had done so before.
Bulgaria’s quota is 17 members of the EU Parliament, and the expectations are that the liberals will be able to take the most from Bulgaria in the upcoming European elections. DPS usually wins three seats in the EU Parliament, as many as We Continue the Change hopes for. It will go in a coalition with Democratic Bulgaria, which may also divide between the EPP and Renew.
(Krassen Nikolov, Emiliya Milcheva | Euractiv.bg)
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