Bulgarian member of Parliament dies of Covid-19
Valentin Kassabov, a member of Parliament for the ultra-nationalist United Patriots group, died on December 17 at the age of 62 after a month-long battle with Covid-19.
The December 18 sitting of the National Assembly opened with a minute of silence for Kassabov, who was deputy chairman of Valeri Simeonov’s National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria party and co-leader of the United Patriots group.
Kassabov had been treated at two hospitals in Bourgas before being transferred to St Ekaterina hospital in Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia where he was treated in the intensive care unit.
Among those to express condolences on Kassabov’s death was Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, whose coalition government has the United Patriots as its minority partner.
Kassabov, born in Bourgas on February 6 1958, graduated in Bulgarian Philology from the University of Veliko Turnovo.
He worked as a journalist from 1987 before entering politics in 1989. He was a Bourgas municipal councillor on the list of the right-wing Gergovden movement from 1999 to 2003, and in 2007 was elected to the council on the list of Volen Siderov’s ultra-nationalist Ataka party.
Kassabov left Ataka in 2009 and in 2011 became one of the founders of Simeonov’s NFSB. He was elected a member of Parliament in 2014 as part of the Patriotic Front group and in 2017 on the list of the United Patriots.
(Screenshot via BNT)
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