Second Bulgarian MP Declares Affiliation to Newly Formed Party

Svetlin Tanchev, an MP formerly from the largest opposition group GERB, will represent the newly-established party Bulgaria Without Censorship.

Although he has not joined the party, he is expected to stand for its interests in the Bulgarian Parliament starting from Tuesday, Dnevnik.bg reports.

Tanchev's decision means that Bulgaria Without Censorship, a newly-established party led by journalist-turned-politician Nikolay Barekov, has now a second MP to represent it in Parliament and a third one, Krasimir Stefanov, to work for it as a financial expert.

Alongside with Tanchev, former National Revenue Agency director Krasimir Stefanov left the ranks of the center-right opposition GERB, firstly declaring himself as "an independent MP".

Rumen Yonchev, on the other hand, was part of the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)'s parliamentary group, prior to resigning from the party.

The two MPs of Bulgaria Without Censorship, which only two weeks ago was not represented in Parliament, are due to introduce a couple of draft bills, and one of them is dedicated to the establishment of a "Clean Hands" agency to investigate top-level politicians, the party's office has announced.

The BSP's Georgi Kadiev, an MP known for occasional dissent with some of the party's decisions, announced Tuesday that Yonchev and Tanchev's departure from the two biggest groups in parliament means quorum in plenary sessions becomes even more fragile than before, with the ruling BSP and DPS (the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms) having now only 119 MPs at their disposal.

Kadiev also reminded that some of the MPs do not regularly go to work, which threatens parliamentary sessions even further.