site.btaRuling Party Blasts President Radev for "Divisive Address"

ESD 17:20:31 10-11-2018
LN1723ES.105
105 POLITICS - PRESIDENT - ADDRESS - COMMENT amplified

Ruling Party
Blasts President Radev
for "Divisive Address"


Sofia, November 10 (BTA)- Speaking to reporters on Saturday GERB
party floor leader and Deputy Chairman of the party Tsvetan
Tsvetanov blasted the latest address to the nation by President
Rumen Radev and called it "divisive". "President Radev has shown
for yet another time that he divides the nation, instead of
uniting it, as enshrined in the Constitution," Tsvetanov said.

In a speech on the 29th anniversary of the start of transition
from communism to democracy and free market economy, the
President said that the democracy in Bulgaria is under threat.

Tsvetanov said that Radev has shown again that he is a president
of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party and that there is
total coordination between him and Socialist leader Kornelia
Ninova.

Tsvetanov argued that the separation of powers is the strength
of democracy, that the powers must respect one another and work
together. "When someone vested in power satisfies their personal
ego, this is bad for the State," Tsvetanov said.

He pointed out that Radev has been two years in his term in
office and has not made a single address to Parliament.

The GERB floor leader hinted about irregularities with the
financing of Radev's election campaign. Tsvetanov said that a
working group may be set up to examine the sources of financing
"because for some people the obscure and non-transparent
financing is a way of attaining political goals and entering
power". "This campaign does not allow the President to talk
about morality and transparency," Tsvetanov said.

In a Facebook post which apparently referred to the President's
address, National Assembly Chairperson Tsveta Karayancheva wrote
that "the Bulgarian citizen has had enough experience from
encounters with false doomsayers and has learned how to punish
them".

Karayancheva described Radev's words about the demise of the
Bulgarian democracy and the fall of civil liberties as "ugly
doom-saying". "This takes place against a background where
Bulgaria is winning itself a name of a regional leader on the
Balkans, a name of a recognized loyal European partner who voice
is heard, and a country which according to the latest economic
forecasts will have the fifth highest economic growth in the
EU," Karayancheva wrote.

In a comment on Darik Radio Saturday, Justice Minister Tsetska
Tsacheva said that the President certainly has the right to
speak his mind but he must do so as a unifier, and in this case
he spoke as an opposition leader.

Bulgarian Socilaist Party leader Kornelia Ninova said the
President had every right to say what he said. She said on Darik
that he was also very objective in his remarks. LN/ZH