site.btaPower-Sharing Nationalist Party Urges for Assistance to Fellow Bulgarians in North Macedonia

105 POLITICS - VMRO - CONGRESS

Power-Sharing Nationalist Party
Urges for Assistance to Fellow Bulgarians
in North Macedonia


Sofia, March 23 (BTA) - The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Bulgarian National Movement (VMRO) held its Seventh Congress here on Saturday.

VMRO is one of the three nationalist parties in the power-sharing United Patriots coalition, along with the National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria and Ataka.

Opening the Congress, VMRO Chairman Krassimir Karakachanov, who is also Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, said that his party is facing new challenges: the European and the local elections.

Karakachanov said he was a champion of the continued existence of the United Patriots coalition.

"Bulgaria is bound to help its compatriots in North Macedonia" in a way guaranteeing the country's territorial integrity and the calm of fellow Bulgarians there, the speaker said, addressing the Congress delegates.

He stressed that helping North Macedonia does not imply that the Bulgarian State has abandoned the historical truth. "This does not imply that we have given up struggling against the falsification of our history and against the attempts to create some new invented ethnicity of the population in the Republic of Macedonia by administrative and coercive methods," Karakachanov explained. He added that VMRO has achieved significant success in protecting the rights and representation of fellow Bulgarians in North Macedonia.

The Congress re-elected Karakachanov Chairman of the party, along with the sitting members of the National Executive Committee (NEC): Angel Dzhambazki, Iskren Vesselinov, Milen Mihov and Atanas Stoyanov (deputy chairmen), Yulian Angelov (organizational secretary), and Alexander Sidi, Anton Andonov, Boris Vangelov, Vassil Hristov, Georgi Drakaliev, Krassimir Bogdanov and Sultanka Petrova (members). Three new members were added to the complement of the NEC: Yordan Yordanov, Kalin Popovski and Carlos Contrera.

The Seventh Congress approved the leadership's report on what has been done since the previous congress and discussed the party's policy and matters concerning the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

Ataka Party leader and United Patriots Floor Leader Volen Siderov greeted the Congress, saying that his party has been working wonderfully with VMRO and hopes that it will continue to do so during the rest of the term of the incumbent Cabinet and at the forthcoming European elections. Siderov thanked VMRO for the fine cooperation over the last two years. He was adamant that the incumbent coalition Government must serve out its term. In his opinion, having united in 2016, the patriotic parties were able to do well in the last two elections became. "For the first time the Movement for Rights and Freedoms was ousted as the number three parliamentary party by a patriotic bloc, and this marked a U-turn in Bulgarian politics," the United Patriots Floor Leader stressed.

In his opinion, most Bulgarians set greater store by the local elections. It is precisely at those elections that the nationalists must consolidate their niche and foothold. "The easiest thing is to is to go our separate ways, contesting [the elections] together is more difficult. The question is whether we can do it now," Siderov said. He believes that the patriotic parties still stand a chance of running in the May 26 European Parliament elections on a shared ticket. LI/LG
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