site.btaKanev and Mestan Discuss "Political Winter"

Kanev and Mestan Discuss "Political Winter"

Sofia, January 15 (BTA) - The recently ousted chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Lyutvi Mestan, and the pro-turned-anti-government politician Radan Kanev, who leads the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, met in the room of the Reformist Bloc's parliamentary group in the National Assembly behind closed doors on Friday to discuss "the political winter," as Mestan put it in remarks to the media.

Kanev said: "You will not see Mr Mestan and me pool our efforts. There are too many things that divide us, including a big generation gap which exists in Bulgarian politics."

Both men were positive they could not come together in a joint political project. "We did not try to reach concord on anything, this would have been hopeless," Kanev asserted.

Mestan sees a point in, and a need for, a Liberal movement for Bulgaria's Euro-Atlantic development. "We belong in the political centre. You cannot lump us with any rightist projects," he noted.

Mestan has confirmed to Kanev that he and the MRF defectors around him who are still in Parliament will serve as a "very clear opposition to a ruling coalition whose format is becoming increasingly vague."