site.btaBSP's EP Top-list Candidate Yoncheva Recaps Suspected Corruption Cases She Has Helped Shed Light on

March 18 (BTA) - Socialist MP Elena Yoncheva, who was  elected here on Sunday as the Bulgarian Socialist Party's (BSP)  top-of-the-list candidate for the upcoming European Parliament  (EP) elections in May, recapped the suspected corruption  scandals she has helped shed light on, quoted by BSP in a press release.

"I started battles with the help of my colleagues [in  Parliament]," Yoncheva said after BSP's Executive Bureau
meeting, recalling the case about the fence along the border  with Turkey, which is currently being investigated and about  which the Prosecutor General had admitted on a famous Bulgarian TV talk show that there is information pointing to corruption.

Yoncheva also recalled another scandal about the alleged  appointment of friends and relatives of a GERB MP to high-level positions in the southeastern municipality of Haskovo. According to the Socialist MP, this is the feudal model under which most Bulgarian municipalities function.

Yoncheva also mentioned a road construction quality probe, demanded by the Socialists, whose lab results she expects to prove that Bulgarian roads are not built according to EU  standards. "When we prove that 40 per cent of the budget's value goes to the incumbents, then we will win," Yoncheva said, quoting a report by the US Department of State, according to which two-thirds of the high-level deals involving corruption are not investigated.
 
Yoncheva thanked all who believed in her and backed her, describing the EP elections as a battle for Bulgaria and all people with pro-European attitudes. "This is a battle for justice, for our dignity and against the pillage. Only through Europe will we succeed in our fight for Bulgaria," she said.
 
Commenting on her election, which took place at a plenum closed to the media after four-hours-long debates and a secret ballot, Yoncheva said it is normal to have a debate in a democratic party. It can be filled with arguments and there is nothing scary about it. What is scary is when a political party's democratic system lacks a clash of ideas and its leader is elected by 98 per cent, such as GERB, she said.

Yoncheva, who is the BSP Spokesperson but is not a member of the party, got 95 votes, while her strongest contender, Sergei Stanishev, President of the Party of the European Socialist, former BSP leader and prime minister of Bulgaria, got 75 votes. Yoncheva admitted that it was not easy to compete against Stanishev, whose life partner she was in the past. LI/MY


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