Ex-Journalist Barekov Heads His Party's EU Elections List

Nikolay Barekov, a former journalist and TV host, announced he would lead the EU Elections list of a coalition forged by his Bulgaria without Censorship (BWC) party.

The leaders of nationalist VMRO-BND, Agrarian People's Union and Gergiovden Movement, the other three parties within the coalition, will rank immediately after him in the list, Dnevnik.bg has reported.

After presenting his bloc's registration papers for the EU elections at the Central Electoral Commission, Barekov said that he had taken the decision to be the first MEP candidate from the group of parties in order to personally fight Sergey Stanishev, ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)'s leader, who on his behalf heads the socialists on the way to the European Parliament.

He added he would not like to insult such a "jester" as Stanishev, but promised to defeat him at every debate.

Barekov also vowed to carry out a "positive" campaign and made clear that BWC did not have at disposal funds for vote-rigging.

Various polls suggest different outcome for BWC at May 25's European Elections, but generally predict that it will do well, with somewhere between 6 and 8 percent of support.

Barekov has managed to win the confidence of some acting MPs from both the ruling BSP and center-right opposition GERB, with a few lawmakers from them splitting from their parliamentary group and declaring themselves independent.

This has led some to describe as "unprecedented" the situation in which a party that was not elected and did not exist at 2013 elections is now represented in Parliament.