site.btaCC-DB's Nikola Minchev Confirms Agreeing to Head Party List of Candidates for EP Elections

Continue the Change ranking member, MP and former Parliament leader Nikola Minchev confirmed Thursday that he had agreed to top the party list of candidates for the European Parliament (EP) elections this year. "I have given my consent in principle for my name to be discussed for the leader of the EP candidates list, but this is a matter to be decided by the collective body," he said.

"When decisions are made, we will announce them," he said. 

Asked if it was his decision to run for MEP instead of becoming rotating president of Parliament in March, he said that the decisions are made jointly by the collective body. The decision about the top-of-the-list candidate for the EP elections are made by the party bodies, while the decision about who will chair Parliament is a decision of the Parliamentary Group. 

"We are taking the upcoming European elections quite seriously because we realize how important they are for us. Moreover, these will be the first EP elections for Continue the Change. Our goal is to make a very serious list for the European elections and then to have a serious representation in the European Parliament," he added.

Nikola Minchev stressed that it is a matter of discussion whether Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria would run together in the European elections. "My opinion is that just as we stood together in the local elections, here too we should continue to show this unity." According to him, membership in separate political families of the two formations is not an obstacle to them running jointly in the EP elections.