SOFIA
The split within Bulgaria’s coalition government has been widening since last month’s European Parliament elections, with the junior coalition partner pushing for snap elections.
The mainly ethnic Turkish Movements for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) party called for early elections by the end of this year after main opposition centre-right GERB party won a comfortable victory over the bigger coalition partner Bulgarian Socialist Party in the European Parliament elections on May 25.
The Socialists, reluctantly, complied with MRF's calls for snap polls. In response, they counteracted by declaring support for two issues avidly opposed by its coalition partner, including a move to nullify a declaration denouncing the assimilation against Turks and Muslim minorities in the country.
At a parliamentary sub-commission meeting on Friday, seven lawmakers from the Socialists voiced their support for the extreme right Ataka party's proposal to dismiss the declaration, which has been approved in early 2012 amid opposition from far-right politicians.
MRF leader Lutvy Mestan said the move might be an act of vengeance against his party's calls for holding early elections.
In the previous parliamentary elections in May 2013, GERB came first by securing 30 percent of the votes; however, the Socialists, who got the second largest share of votes, had the mandate to form a coalition since GERB could not find any coalition partner.
The coalition government of Socialists and MRF holds exactly half of the seats in Bulgaria's 240-member assembly.
GERB won last month's European Parliament elections with 24.3 percent of the vote, while the Socialist Party-led central-left alliance came second by getting 18.5 percent.
aa.com.tr/en
