site.btaVelichie Parliamentary Group Ceases Existence amidst Intra-Party Row

The Velichie Parliamentary Group ceased to exist on Friday after six of its 13 members submitted applications to leave, said National Assembly Deputy Chair Rositsa Kirova, who presided over Friday's plenary sitting.

The applicants were named as Krasimira Katincharova, Juliana Mateeva, Pavlin Petrov, Irena Neginova, Larisa Savova, and Rositsa Kalinova.

According to the National Assembly Rules of Organization and Procedure, a minimum of ten MPs are required to form a parliamentary group shall be 10 people.

The National Assembly website no longer lists any MPs as part of the Velichie Parliamentary Group.

Kirova also said that Viktoria Vasileva had been released as deputy chair of Parliament prior to the expiry of her term in office.

Following this development, MP Darin Georgiev said: "This is the end of Velichie. Many interesting things will follow, stay tuned."

According to Georgiev, Ivelin Mihaylov, "the man behind the scenes of the party", is to blame for the current state of affairs. "What kind of person he is, you will find out later, if you have not already found out," he replied, asked whether they did not realize from the outset what kind of person they would be dealing with.

"We continue to work with what resources are left, we can no longer participate in committees, we will be observers," Georgiev said, describing the future work of the lawmakers of the defunct parliamentary group. "I remain united with those who have not betrayed the idea of Velichie, who have not broken away," he said.

"We left the Velichie Parliamentary Group because we lost confidence in the group's leadership," Krasimira Katincharova MP of the Stara Zagora Constituency told a news briefing in Parliament later on Friday.

Velichie floor leader Nikolay Markov said on Bulgarian National Radio Friday noon that he refused to accept that the parliamentary group "be controlled by phone by Ivelin Mihaylov, and people dependent on his left the group following his instructions in order to break it up." Markov stressed that certain MPs' allegations that they had lost confidence in the group's leadership were untenable because this could not possible happen within five days since the inception of the legislature.

"This is nonsense. Ivelin Mihaylov wants to keep them dependent. He texts them what to say when they address Parliament and they made themselves a laughing stock," Markov commented. 

He explained that he had no control over the compilation of the Velichie candidate lists for the June 9 elections. "Mihaylov appointed those people to the Velichie Parliamentary Group, probably because they are dependent on him… I had never met those people before, I got acquainted with them in Parliament," Markov said.

Velichie's informal leader Ivelin Mihaylov told bTV on Friday that the party will continue to function. "We continue with Velichie, we created it with the idea of defending ordinary people. We will struggle to make the voice of the ordinary person heard. We have a concrete system that we will continue to implement with our Velichie MPs," Mihaylov said.

He explained how he first met Velichie Floor Leader Nikolay Markov. "Colonel Markov approached me in March together with [conductor] Yordan Kamdzhalov, and they said they had an idea to help the country. I said I would help, but I do not want to be a politician and enter Parliament," Mihaylov added.

In an official press release, the Velichie Party said on Friday evening said that Markov is not member of the party, had not signed a declaration of membership, had not accepted the party's Statute and its values. According to the press release, Markov became a "self-proclaimed leader and chairperson of the party," which was not opposed by Velichie's Central Council so as not to harm the election campaign. 

In an official position of the leadership, circulated by Velichie's press centre, the Central Council distanced itself from the actions and words of MPs Nikolay Markov and Viktoria Vasileva, the party's press centre said in an official position of the leadership.

"We call on Nikolay Markov to vacate the position of floor leader of our parliamentary group and on Viktoria Vasileva to resign as Deputy Chair of the National Assembly," the press release reads. It calls on the rest of the Velichie MPs to distance themselves as well and to elect a new floor leader and a new deputy chair of Parliament from the party's quota.