site.btaDemocrats for Strong Bulgaria Will Not Leave Reformist Bloc

Democrats for Strong Bulgaria Will Not Leave Reformist Bloc

Sofia, March 13 (BTA) - Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) remains part of the Reformist Bloc in order to reform it and guarantee the preservation of the values on which it was founded. This resolution was moved by DSB leader Radan Kanev and adopted after a heated debate by a National Meeting of the right-wing party in Sofia on Sunday. Taking part were more than 700 DSB members. "I will not seek a mandate to leave and wreck the Bloc but to take it back where it belongs: with its voters and objectives," Kanev said.

In his words, "those who argue now that the Bloc is a successful project deceive themselves and those who placed their political trust in them." "Within the space of a year, the Reformist Bloc failed to achieve its objectives, failed to stand up for its programme and failed to live up to voters' expectations," Kanev concluded.

The Reformist Bloc was established in October 2013 as a coalition of five liberal, Christian democratic and conservative anti-communist parties: Bulgaria for the Citizens Movement, DSB, Union of Democratic Forces, Freedom and Dignity People's Party (FDPP) and Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BANU). Together with Bulgarian New Democracy and the Christian Democratic Party of Bulgaria, the Bloc won 23 seats in the October 2014 parliamentary elections and signed a power-sharing agreement with top vote-getter GERB on the formation of the second Boyko Borissov Cabinet. In December 2015, after Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov resigned, DSB went into opposition, resenting the speed and depth of the judicial reform carried out by the Government. Kanev was the first DSB MP to withdraw his support for the Cabinet, and he was followed by the rest of the DSB MPs, but they all remained part of the Reformist Bloc Parliamentary Group.

A resolution of the Meeting, proposed by Kanev, says that DSB remains in the Reformist Bloc but, at the same time, confirms its going into opposition. The chairman and the leadership are mandated to cooperate with civil society organizations in forming a broad political alliance as an alternative to the incumbent government.

In the debate on the pros and cons of the party's staying in the Reformist Bloc, the Bloc was called a "whorehouse", and a representative of the Bourgas Chapter even vowed to leave DSB if the party does not leave the Bloc. The Sofia Region Chapter mandated Kanev to leave the Bloc and to invite BANU and FDPP to join a new right-wing project. The Varna Chapter of DSB also declared themselves for leaving the Reformist Bloc.

"If your trust in me is intact, you will see me many times making compromises and negotiating, but I will not back off the objectives," the DSB leader said.

He noted that compromises with justice are out of the question.

"Democracy needs a real opposition and real power," he added. "If we want democracy to have power, in addition to a real opposition, we need to steer the road ahead, to offer an alternative," Kanev said and called on his fellow party members to prepare for power.

He argued that GERB did not wish to have a reasonable partner on the right. "This means that they will get a reasonable alternative on the right, but it must consolidate rather than disintegrate," Kanev pointed out.

The National Meeting delegates adopted a new DSB Statute. It provides for a Citizens Council as an autonomous advisory body, formed on a voluntary basis by experts, academics, business persons, athletes and non-party members.

The Meeting also adopted a declaration insisting on the immediate release and return to Ukraine of Nadezhda Savchenko, who is held in Russia.

Addressing the forum before Kanev, November 21 leader Tatyana Doncheva called for a broad platform "to oust the thugs and the mafia from power". In her opinion, four or five years are a realistic timeframe for this. Doncheva described GERB as "impudent but well-organized conformists". LN/LG