Peevski claims to have expelled Chakurov, other rivals, from MRF
Controversial figure Delyan Peevski said on November 16 that the national council of his Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning had decided to expel “all party quitters who are already members of another parliamentary group” from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF).
This is the latest episode in the faction fighting between Peevski and MRF founder Ahmed Dogan, which saw MRF – New Beginning and Dogan’s Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) coalition compete against each other in Bulgaria’s October early parliamentary elections.
In those elections, MRF – New Beginning got 30 seats in the 51st National Assembly, and ARF 19.
Among those expelled was ARF leader Dvezhdet Chakurov, according to Peevski. In August 2024, the Dogan faction said that it had expelled Peevski and his allies from the MRF.
“As of today, MRF – New Beginning has only one leader, in my person,” Peevski told reporters on November 16.
In February 2024, at the proposal of Dogan, the MRF elected Peevski and Chakurov as national co-leaders. Peevski went on to become parliamentary leader of the MRF, while by June, open warfare had broken out between the Peevski and Dogan factions.
There is a court battle over the registration of the leadership of the MRF.
However, on November 15, the Sofia City Court again failed to proceed with the application by Chakurov to delete Peevski as national co-leader and to delete the registration of the Peevski allies expelled from the MRF in August.
The latest, third postponement resulted from an appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation by the Chakurov camp against the Sofia City Court’s refusal to approve the application of the expelled to be constituted as parties to the case.
Other controversies attending Peevski, who is subject to US and UK sanctions for corruption, include a formal inquiry to the National Protection Service by the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition about why the service has provided vehicles for Peevski’s security.
There also has been controversy about the caretaker government providing a building in Sofia, which previously has housed offices of the National Revenue Agency, Public Enterprises and Control Agency, and the Invest Bulgaria Agency, for the use of Peevski’s MRF – New Beginning.
The decision was not outlined in detail in caretaker government decisions, saying only that it had been decided to declare the building private state property, but not saying to which group the building had been allocated.
WCC-DB MP Bogdan Bogdanov said that the caretaker government’s decision was unlawful, because a building could only be granted to a parliamentary group, and given that the 51st National Assembly has not been properly constituted – having failed so far to elect a Speaker – no parliamentary groups exist.
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