Less than four months after former leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms Lutvi Mestan was ousted from that party he fulfilled his intention to establish a new political party. The new formation was officially launched last Sunday under the name Democrats for Responsibility, Freedom and Tolerance. The leader of the new political party Mestan criticized repeatedly his former party MRF during the event. He accused the current leadership of that party of placing the Bulgarian democracy in captivity of corruption, oligarchy and pro-Russian interests. He also accused the state institutions of serving private and oligarchic interests, instead of defending the interest of the public.

The establishment of the name Democrats for Responsibility, Freedom and Tolerance attracted public attention with the impressive presence of representatives of political parties and organizations from neighboring Turkey. Members of the Justice and Development Party headed by President Recep Erdogan, the opposition Republican People's Party and the far rightist Party of Nationalist Movement attended the event. A representative of the Party of Nationalist Movement scandalized the public. He said during the establishment of DOST that “every place where our language is spoken is part of our motherland”. Thus, the Turkish guest unambiguously proved that he viewed the newly-established party as an ethnical formation. Bulgaria's Vice President Margarita Popova also showed indignation from that speech. She criticized in public the Bulgarian Presidency (of which she makes part) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the lack of response of these institutions. The nationalistic party Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) urged the Bulgarian court to act promptly and refuse registration of the new party. Otherwise, a new political subject would appear in Bulgaria and will defend foreign interests, IMRO contends. Representatives of IMRO also said that DOST party will throw Bulgaria into a Bosnian or Macedonian scenario of religious and ethnical division of the local society and that the new party is a pro-Turkish and pro-Islamic party, rather than a Euro-Atlantic party, as the members of that formation claim. ”

The leader of DOST Lutvi Mestan said at the constituent conference that the final countdown for MRF had started. In other words, the new formation would try to earn the support of the traditional electorate of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which consists mainly of Bulgarian Turks. A recent research of GALLUP sociological agency shows that over 25% of the MRF supporters said they would vote for the new political project, even before it was officially established.

The MRF earned 14.84% of all votes at the early Parliamentary elections in 2014, which means that if DOST manages to attract 25% of the MRF supporters, it would be very close to the 4% barrier at the next Parliamentary elections. In other words, the new party that appears on the Bulgarian political horizon should be taken in seriously, because it has the potential to end the traditional role of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms as a party which maintains the balance in the country's political life, which presupposes a substantial change of the political status-quo. Lutvi Mestan knows that well. That is why he said that his party would work in a very hostile political environment, because the “establishment of DOST affects serious geopolitical, economic, corporate and oligarchic interests”. However, DOST leader Mestan believes that his party would not remain in political isolation and would be a desired political partner for each party which aims at making reforms in Bulgaria.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov