New year, new DPS in politics. Who will play what role in the party… Guner Tahir - former deputy chairman of DPS and chairman of the “National Movement for Rights and Freedoms“ (NDPS) - spoke to FACTI.
- Mr. Tahir, in the last six months we have seen a complete transformation in DPS. From Ahmed Dogan's DPS, the party became Peevski's DPS. How do you view this?
- Exactly a year ago at this time I predicted that processes were starting to take place in DPS that would lead to division. Just as Peevski ruined everything he touched over the years, I expected him to ruin the MRF. Then I said that this would happen within the next six months. And that's exactly what we witnessed. In early July 2024, these processes of disintegration and the formation of two factions began. Then we saw the result of the elections for the 51st National Assembly. This is both expected and unexpected.
Expected, because even at the beginning of the creation of the MRF in the 1990s, Ahmed Dogan was saying that the party would cease to exist or transform after a certain time.
Unexpected that this is happening right now. I think that we are currently in such a period of transformation. But what will remain of the party… In reality, if there had been no such direct intervention by the court in the last elections, the MRF should not have officially participated as a party, because it was not known who represented it. And it should have been as part of two coalitions. But after the intervention of the Supreme Administrative Court, which set a precedent with its decision that a formal application can be submitted electronically, and then the relevant documents, signatures of supporting voters, etc. to the CEC. This, if we were a normal country, could not have happened, but in Bulgaria, as we know, everything is possible and we are not even surprised anymore. Now, in view of the National Conference of the MRF-New Beginning held on December 22 - yes, there is such a coalition, but there is no such party, I expect in the next month or two at most that the Sofia City Court will register the MRF-New Beginning wing as officially representing the MRF.
But for all open-minded citizens of the country, it is clear that this is how the court interferes in internal party problems and takes sides.
And this should not happen. I agree that the two meetings - of the Central Operational Bureau and then of the Central Council of the MRF, organized by the faction of Ahmed Dogan, when eight people headed by Peevski were expelled, were not legitimate. The same is true of the conference that was held on December 22. For me, it is also not legitimate.
- Why?
- Because we have several statutory provisions that have not been complied with. In order to convene a conference, regular or extraordinary, there must be a decision of the Central Council. Since we know that the statute of the MRF states that decisions are made by a majority of 2/3 of the numerical composition of the Central Council, who convened the conference and by whose decision? The faction around Chakarov does not have a majority, the faction around Peevski does not either. I am surprised that Chakarov is silent - not to say like what, and does not even dispute it verbally. Yes, someone can settle like a cuckoo in someone else's nest, but how long will he live there and are these the real facts!? Now I expect that, as the Supreme Administrative Court did, the Sofia City Court will now not take into account the real facts, but will accept Peevski's faction as the sole representative of the MRF. If the court takes the facts into account, there is no way this December conference can be legitimate.
- It was also decided at that conference that there would no longer be an honorary chairman. Is this some form of revenge against Ahmed Dogan?
- No. Look, in general, this with the honorary chairman was invented in favor of Ahmed Dogan.
Furthermore, Dogan and Peevski are two sides of the same coin.
The position of honorary chairman does not fit into modern politics. This was an invented position so that Dogan could exist over time and have weight in the party, but without participating in organizational and operational activities. The question is whether this decision at the December conference is legitimate. I am now thinking as a politician, not as an opponent of the MRF. We must be realistic and speak with real facts, not according to what we ourselves want. In other words, the fact that Peevski has dealt with Dogan himself may be good for us from the point of view of our political formation, but for us as citizens of this country, in which the laws must be respected – especially in this case the Law on Political Parties, it sounds frivolous for one of the two factions to declare that it represents the entire MRF party.
- And how do you accept the fact that so many people sided with Peevski?
- This is something that is debatable from the point of view of who got how many votes in total. A statistic that came out immediately after the last elections showed that of those who voted for the unified MRF in June last year, 53% now voted for APS and Dogan, and 44% for Peevski's MRF. Another issue is that different votes are received at each new election. That is, “New Beginning“ has added significantly to these votes to have 283 thousand votes, against 181,000 for APS. We cannot say that either faction has a total advantage when it comes to the traditional MRF voters.