GERB leader Boyko Borissov Thursday said that his party will not make a coalition with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), as GERB stated as early as three months ago. Talking to reporters, Borissov said further that the negotiations had proved in an indisputable way that GERB neither asked for support from the MRF nor gave support to that party. 

Asked which MRF was more acceptable as a partner – the MRF led by Ahmed Dogan, thanks to whom Borissov rose on the political scene, or the MRF under the leadership of Delyan Peevski, with whom Borissov was in an assemblage [a term used to describe the non-coalition ruling during the regular government of prime minister Nikolay Denkov] Borissov replied: “I was in an assemblage with Lena [Borislavova], Kiro [Continue the Change co-leader Kiril Petkov], [CC co-leader] Assen [Vassilev] and Denkov, and the cabinet was called “Gabriel-Denkov”. The MRF did not participate in this assemblage, neither did they have ministers, nor did they participate in the negotiations,” said the GERB leader. “Subsequently, when [Democratic Bulgaria leader] Hristo Ivanov decided that we should change the Constitution at all costs , and that was done with 160 votes [in favour], the MRF appeared at the table,” Borissov added. 

“It is a bit like Spain and England in the [FIFA World Cup] final,” Borissov said when asked whether MRF Honorary Chairman Ahmed Dogan or MRF Chairman Peevski would win given the tension in the MRF. Borissov said that there is a problem in the MRF, and the accusations they transfer to each other give a great opportunity for GERB’s structures to develop better. “The worse off the other parties are, the better for us,” the GERB leader noted./BTA