site.btaVazrazhdane Party Wants Magnitsky Act Sanctioned Individuals Barred from Senior State and Party Positions

MPs of the Vazrazhdane party are proposing legislative amendments to ban individuals sanctioned under the US Global Magnitsky Act from holding senior government and party positions in Bulgaria. The leader of the pro-Russian nationalist party, Kostadin Kostadinov, broke the news during a media briefing in the parliamentary lobby on Wednesday.

Kostadinov said: "For us, it is more than logical that the Euro-Atlantic crowd in this parliament would support such a bill. The Global Magnitsky Act targets corruption, the very thing GERB, ARF, CC-DB, and all the Euro-Atlantic metastases in this parliament claim to be fighting against," said Kostadinov.

According to him, there will be two separate bills, one amending the Electoral Code and another revising the Political Parties Act.

“Bulgaria currently has a political party whose leadership is chaired by a person sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act. This has already become a banal reality,” Kostadinov added, obviously referring to MP Delyan Peevski, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning.

Commenting on a joint statement made earlier in the day by GERB and MRF-New Beginning, Kostadinov claimed that GERB had effectively surrendered to Peevski. He also stated that his party would not support a rotational presidency of the National Assembly, a topic raised during the Joint Governance Council on Tuesday.