Almost all parties presented their candidates for MEPs
Adelina Marini, May 15, 2009
Almost all parties and coalitions have presented their candidates for MEPs. The registered for participation in the European elections coalitions are 3: Coalition for Bulgaria (a coalition of socialists and social democrats), "Napred" coalition (in translation: napred=forward) which consists of small parties with not quite clear ideas and the Blue coalition. The other parties will participate on their own. Tomorrow the campaign starts officially, although it has started long ago with some parties already having commercials in the media. Nevertheless the campaign is expected to be ugly and dirty. But there's an element of comprehension what kind of battle is ahead because the leading parties have presented very strong leaders of the their candidates' lists. This will force the voters to think in person, like choosing a majority candidate. Below you will see the main parties with their first 3 candidates for MEPs.
The NDSV (the National movement for stability and progress) were first to nominate their candidates. They will participate on their own in spite the opinion polls and the insinuations of their current coalition partners in the government. That is why they presented a very strong trump to lead their list - the European Commissioner for consumer affairs Meglena Kuneva - a proven professional, workaholic who put sense in the consumer affairs in Europe.
Bulgarian socialists also presented a very strong figure, in spite the negatives they carry from the 
current government. They chose the deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ivaylo Kalfin to lead their list. In fact the battle between him and Meglena Kuneva will not be the first. There was a serious conflict between them, although not direct, when Kuneva was nominated for the Bulgarian commissioner and Kalfin was against her nomination. The foreign minister is one of the few with relatively high rate among the politicians in the ruling parties and is a very good professional.
The issues surrounding the Blue coalition remain even after the coalition presented their list of candidates. A leader is again the ex-foreign minister in the government of Ivan Kostov - Nadezhda Mihaylova. A serious issue is how did she become a leader since she is a member of the UDF and the party couldn't become a member of the Blue coalition because of its registration problems. Mihaylova is a relatively good nomination but is weaker in comparison to the first two but she is also well known and is not loaded with political pretences.
There's no surprise in the list of the nationalist party ATAKA. First on the list is Dimitar Stoyanov who is MEP in the current EP. He is followed by Slavcho Binev and Desislav Chukolov - also current MEPs.
Bulgarian new democracy (BND) will also participate on its own in the European elections after there were serious debates against its participation in the Blue coalition. The leader of their list is Borislav Velikov, followed by Petya Gegova and Veselin Nikolov. Lidia Shuleva is on the 5th position.
There's also not surprise in the list of GERB (Citizens for European development of Bulgaria). The leader is the current MEP Rumyana Zheleva. The only surprise in their list is Emil Stoyanov, on 4th position, who is the brother of the former president Petar Stoyanov.
No surprises with DPS too (Movement for rights and freedoms, established as the party of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria). The list is boring with the current MEP Filiz Hyusmenova on the lead, followed by prof. Vladko Panayotov and Metin Kazak.
Order, rule of law and justice (RZS) now has greater chances to have an MEP. It proposes Dimitar Abadzhiev to lead their list. Abadzhiev has transformed himself very well in the rightist political space. He used to be an observer in the EP before Bulgaria became member of the EU from the DSB. He is followed in the RZS list by Atanas Semov and Ivan Vasilev. An interesting nominee is Veselin Mareshki, who is on the 7th position, and who became popular during the local elections with the allegations that he bought votes in Varna.
The lists of the "Napred" coalition and the party "Lider" (leader) are still not presented. "Napred" is a coalition of small and not very distinguished political parties like pro-Macedonian party VMRO, the movement Ghergyovden, the Farmers' people's union and the United people's party of Maria Kapon.
The first position of the "Lider" party of the businessman Hristo Kovachki has been taken by another Bulgarian politician with inconstant political career - Emil Koshlukov.
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