Democracy, Rights and Freedoms parliamentary group withdraws support from ruling coalition in Bulgaria

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Democracy, Rights and Freedoms (DRF) parliamentary group announced on Tuesday that it had decided to withdraw support from Bulgaria's ruling coalition government.

Announcing the decision, DRF lawmaker Valentin Tonchev accused the government of consolidating corruption, judicial dependence, and backstage dealings, particularly under influence of MRF-New Beginning party’s leader Delyan Peeski, the state-run BTA news agency noted.

He added that plans to support a no-confidence motion and propose a committee to investigate Peevski’s role in judicial corruption and influence trading, while continuing to back policies beneficial to Bulgaria.

Without DRF's 19 lawmakers, the three parliamentary groups backing the coalition, GERB-UDF, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and There Is Such a People party, have 102 seats combined, which is short of the 121 majority in the 240-member legislature,

As such, support for the Movement of Rights and Freedoms- New Beginning party, which has 29 lawmakers, became vital for the coalition government, the agency stressed.

DRF and MRF - New Beginning are factions resulting from a rift in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), when its Honorary Chair Ahmed Dogan and his one-time protege Delyan Peevski clashed over who should control the party and eventually founded MRF-New Beginning.