During the election campaign the EUROPA Portal held an information initiative entitled “The Eighteen – Who They Should Be?” The initiative included a detailed questionnaire of the Bulgarian MEP. Regretfully, the candidates from the MRF list did not fill out the questionnaire. Will the MRF MEPs fill it out now, after the elections?

I have acquainted myself with the questionnaire and am aware of the fact that leaders of the lists of most parties had not completed it. I appreciate your idea to let your audience make an informed choice for the European Parliament and I am sorry that we have failed to take this excellent opportunity to popularize our ideas. I think that all MRF MEPs would answer your questions. I am also regretful that you haven’t asked us personally to answer your readership questions.

During the campaign we received readers’ questions addressed to the MRF. Would you answer the questions of readers of the Europa Portal? Following are some of them:

• Ventsislav Kunchev, Sofia: “Look what the DSB is saying about Turkey, the EU and the interference into the internal affairs of Bulgaria. What is the position of the MRF and ALDE on Turkey’s membership?”
  
  Since the question overlaps with another from the same interview, please see the answer below.
  
• Alexander Andreev, Pleven: “Ms. Hyusmenova, what is your view regarding the so called scandal around the Batak massacre?”
  
  I believe that the world globalization has a number of positive effects, but it also has certain aspects which make us, Bulgarian citizens, turn to our roots, self-identify ourselves before others and demand that they respect us. When certain people – foreigners as well as Bulgarians – who do not know history well try to interpret and discuss it fragmentally, no matter what their motives are, nothing but distortion will result. Unfortunately, this is also a propitious soil for provoking ethnic confrontation. The “re-writing” of Bulgarian history is widely commented. For me it only has sense if untruthful presentation is deleted and only facts remain.
• Vyara Nikolaeva, Sofia: “The BNT clips show your candidates as speaking different foreign languages, Turkish included. What certificates for knowledge of the Turkish language do they have?”
   
  They have no such certificates. Turkish is their mother tongue, and the degree of knowing it is not very pertinent to their work at the European Parliament, since there the working languages are mostly English and French.
• Vladimir Sokolov, Vratsa: “Why Metin Kazak is in the top of the list and Cetin Kazak is in the bottom? How were their places decided on?”
  Although they are identical twins, they are not interchangeable. The candidates ranking in the list is related to the MRF views regarding the European Parliament and the domestic policy.
  
  
• Anton Alexiev, Sofia: “Your list includes a candidate, Yunal Lutfi, whom the dossier commission revealed as belonging to the former repression service. I know the rightist opposition’s criticism in this connection. Ms. Hyusmenova, I would like to read your explanation as a list leader and young person: Why his dossier is not a problem? I want to hear your arguments which will help me convince my friends to vote for you.”
  
  A man’s choices during the years of totalitarianism were not that big. Though seemingly ordered and calm, people’s life was largely manipulated. People’s freedom and respect for their basic rights cannot be said to have been a priority of the totalitarian machine. Whoever has experienced this can absolve or not himself. And can also get the absolution of people who believe him. The more so as this person has spent 30 years of his life working so that human right could never be trampled underfoot again.