Bulgarian party leader wants Berlusconi as candidate
(ANSA) – Sofia, December 4 – The leader of a small, centre-right Bulgarian party has said he wants former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi to be a candidate for the group in next year’s European elections.
Three-time premier Berlusconi was ejected from the Italian Senate last week and is ineligible to stand in fresh elections after Italy’s supreme court upheld a tax-fraud verdict against him, making it definitive.
European citizens can run in any EU country in European elections, which has led to speculation Berlusconi could stand outside Italy to get around his ban on holding public office and re-acquire the immunity from arrest he lost when he was stripped of his seat in parliament.
Bulgaria has been mentioned as a possibility, given Berlusconi’s warm relations with former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. But the move is seen as unlikely, with some reports saying the 77-year-old billionaire would be ineligible in Bulgaria anyway because of his ban in Italy.
On Tuesday Borisov, the head of the centre-right GERB that is currently in the opposition, ruled out having Berlusconi among his candidates to be MEPs.
But Yane Yanev, the leader of the Order, Law and Justice (RZS) party, said he wants him.
“Silvio Berlusconi has a place in Bulgarian politics. He is more patriotic than all of our MEPs put together,” Yanev told the BTV network.
“I’ll go further, Berlusconi deserves to be the head of our list of candidates at the European elections”.
RZS does not have any representatives in Bulgaria’s parliament after failing to reach the 4% threshold in May’s elections.