After 17 MPs from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, MRF, were expelled, among them the party’s other co-chair Dzevdet Chakarov, MRF MP Ahmed Vranchev expressed, in written form, a desire to leave the Movement’s parliamentary group.

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His request was read out by the vice president of the National Assembly Rositsa Kirova. After him, MP Dimitar Nikolov also submitted an application to the National Assembly stating he no longer wished to be part of the MRF parliamentary group. This brings the number of MPs who are np longer part of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms parliamentary group up to 19, with the MRF parliamentary group now consisting of 25 members of parliament. In parliament building, Ramadan Atalay, one of the first people to have been expelled, stated that it would be absurd to think the MRF’s honorary chairman Ahmed Dogan could lose the battle against Delyan Peevski. “Can you even imagine Mr. Dogan splitting away from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms?” asked Ramadan Atalay and added that the final decision is up to the Central Council, and that if it decides that “Peevski is wrong, even if he persists things will be decided”.

The Central Council of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, where these decisions will be made, is expected to be convened within days, and it could be attended by Ahmed Dogan.