Çetin Kazak, MP from MRF: We will seek consensus in order to place Bulgaria back on the road of EU development

- Mr. Kazak, last week, some statements of the MRF (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) leader Ahmed Dogan had a far-reaching effect. For example, the forecast that, after the next parliamentary elections, the dire economic situation of Greece might be replicated here. As a result, no party will be willing to form a government. Are these the real conclusions of MRF's analysis?
- Yes. You see that the overall economic and social situation in our country is gloomier than ever. The unemployment rate continues to grow and, according to the official statistics, reached 12.9% for the first quarter, while the EU average was 10.2%.

The economic environment is getting increasingly unfavourable because, instead of positive growth, an outflow of foreign investment is being observed. Small and medium-sized businesses have their backs against the wall; they are being suffocated. These days, Klassa daily also published the news that, in three months, 27,000 small companies were closed down and over 56,000 workers lost their jobs. Not to mention the fact that the youth unemployment rate is appallingly high, and a greater number of young people must seek jobs and a better livelihood abroad.

Besides, the bulk of the financial reserves has been wasted - the reserves accumulated not only during the term in office of the Tripartite Coalition but since the beginning of the century. The current macroeconomic stability may prove to be illusory, too.

All this, together with the lack of a clear vision among the members of the GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) Cabinet as to how to emerge from the economic crisis is turning MRF's members into sceptics; they are pessimistic about Bulgaria's opportune development over the next 1-2 years. The current picture is really gloomy and does not give any causes for optimism. Naturally, as a result of this situation, we can expect that, at the next parliamentary elections, no party will obtain the required majority vote, which will authorise it to govern, and political formations will probably refrain from participating in a broad coalition. And, given all that, things will come down to rescuing the state. These are the conclusions of our political analysis and, as you can see, there is a very high probability of the replication of Greece's dire economic situation in our country after the elections.

- The forecast for the Greek scenario angered Prime Minister Borissov and he stated: "Ahmed Dogan is already panicking because MRF's electorate foundation is now being undermined. The party's only chance was to divide the Bulgarian Turks and the Bulgarian Christians, and scare them with the revival process, with religious conversion and whatnot. " ..
- The truth is exactly the opposite. The truth is that GERB is making serious efforts to attract members from the traditional MRF electorate. However, GERB’s attempts to appropriate a part of our electorate failed and this was unmistakably proven during the local elections in 2011. MRF enjoys firm and constant support on the part of the majority of Bulgaria’s minority population. I do not allude to the Turkish minority alone but also to the Pomaks, a considerable part of the Roma population and others. Generally speaking, the electoral basis of MRF has remained intact despite the enormous efforts of the incumbent Government to undermine and shake it. Obviously, these developments are not to the liking of PM Borissov and he gives the evaluations you quoted. They cannot be supported by specific facts and are, therefore, groundless.

- But Kasim Dal and Korman Ismailov left MRF and, not long ago, Mr. Ismailov said that, together with Kasim Dal, they will form a new party. Don’t you feel the danger of a wedge being driven between MRF and the largest part of the party’s traditional electorate?
- Absolutely not. I believe that such a hypothesis is groundless. Anyone familiar with the history of MRF can confirm that, over the years, there have always been attempts to drive a wedge between the party and the Bulgarian Turks in order to appropriate votes from MRF’s electorate, but these have never succeeded. You remember such attempts – by Mehmed Hodzha and, later on, by Gunnar Tahir who set up the so-called National MRF. After that, Osman Oktay tried to attract votes through his Coalition of the Rose. On the whole, during almost all elections, there have been people - mostly former leaders of MRF – trying to appropriate votes, but these attempts have always failed. The reason is that the support for MRF and its roots among the Muslims in Bulgaria are too strong to be undermined by attempts at political engineering. The prestige of MRF is high both in Bulgaria and abroad, the Republic of Turkey included. This will become apparent during the next elections, I assure you, unless GERB undertake some drastic legislative measures in order to restrict the voting of Bulgarian citizens residing abroad.

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