By Georgi Gotev
Delyan Peevski, the controversial media mogul who was elected as MEP on the list of DPS, the Movements of Rights and Freedoms, announced that he would not take his seat.
Peevski controls a significant number of media in Bulgaria and owns a large chunk of print media distribution. Last week, he was named by Reporters Without Borders as one of the main reasons for the poor state of media freedom in Bulgaria. The country is 111th in the world media freedom index – scoring last in the EU.
Peevski was elected as he is number 2 on the list of DPS list (ALDE-affiliated).
At the previous European elections, Peevkski was also elected as MEP, and also gave up his seat.
He made the announcement on Tuesday (28 May) in the Bulgarian Parliament, where he is a member from the DPS group.
As the website ClubZ reported, this was only his second appearance in the Bulgarian parliament, the first one dating back to 19 April 2017, when the current assembly was constituted.
Peevski said the decision to give up the MEP seat had been taken collectively by DPS, because in his words he was more needed in the country.
The leader of DPS Mustafa Karadaya, who was number 1 in the DPS list, also gave up his MEP seat. This means that the three MEPs from DPS would be Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Iskra Mihaylova (both current MEPs), and Atidge Ali-Veli, a current government official responsible for agricultural programs.
Peevski’s defection from the European Parliament will certainly be a big relief for ALDE.
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