site.btaDRF-MRF Deny Suggestions that Someone Is Pulling Their Strings

“No one is pulling our strings, we are an independent parliamentary group. Democracy, Rights and Freedoms - MRF (DFR - MRF) joined the ruling majority from the very beginning so that the country could be stable, have a budget with a focus on Bulgaria's euro zone membership and break away with the Peevski model,” said MP Valentin Tonchev in Parliament, reacting to a statement by GERB leader Boyko Borissov earlier on Friday.

Borissov speculated "whether someone is pulling the strings of DRF-MRF because of Thursday’s statement that they would not be "a fig leaf for Delyan Peevski's behind-the-scenes dependencies".

The group is adamant that the opposition is not supposed to vote on the budget on first reading.

They rejected claims by GERB-UDF, BSP-United Left and There Is Such a People, according to which DRF-MRF wants posts. “We call on Kostadin Angelov as chair of the Joint Governance Council to publish all the minutes and audio recordings from the Council’s meeting so that the public knows whether we have insisted on positions, whether we have been wringing hands, whether we have wanted something more than the Peevski model to be dismantled,” Tonchev said.

“We support the ruling majority. It is obvious that there is a hidden majority,” Tonchev said, adding they want to share in the responsibility. Tonchev said that the group will make constructive proposals between the two readings of the state budget bill, because they believe that Bulgaria's path is towards the euro. However, he added that if they are not sought to implement the policies that are set in the budget, they cannot be expected to back the ruling majority.

If there is influence of Delyan Peevski and the other three formations cannot disprove this, it is obvious that there is no reason to continue to support such a majority, according to the DRF-MRF.

“We want to be a predictable partner, the DRF-MRF has a very serious coalition culture and we want everything to happen transparently,” said DRF-MRF.