A SERIES of protests in cities across the country, beginning on August 22, have been held to challenge nominations for regional governors to fill the quota from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which represents the Turkish minority. 

 
Protests erupted in Varna, Bulgaria's second most important industrial and economic hub and the country's most important Black Sea coast resort city, and which elected NMSII representatives to Parliament. 

Representatives from two nationalist organisations, VMRO and Ataka, gathered the almost 1000 protestors in Varna on August 22. The protest was strongly supported by the Orthodox Church in Varna. The church claimed that the MRF, as a "Turkish ethnic party", should not govern a Bulgarian city.

Later, on August 30, Bulgarian Orthodox Church officials from Sofia headquarters said that the presence of church representatives among protestors was unauthorised and should not be taken as representing the official stance of the church.  

  
Passions reached a critical level when VMRO and Ataka said that they planned to block the governor's office in Varna and would not let the new MRF governor inside.  

Protests in Varna did not stop even when the MRF announced that it would nominate the present governor Petar Kandilarov, a member of NMSII.

As a response, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said on August 28 that he would follow the coalition agreement and people should be careful about using racist slogans. "The MRF is a democratic party represented in the Bulgarian National Assembly and there is no reason why it cannot have representatives at regional level," he said.   

Protests also erupted in Smolyan, Lovech and Dobrich. Regional units of the BSP and NMSII wrote asking President Georgi Purvanov to take action. Purvanov said that he did not have the prerogative to interfere.

The MRF won third place in the parliamentary elections on June 25, after the BSP and NMSII.

The MRF is currently part of a tripartite coalition Cabinet with the BSP and the NMSII.

As part of the coalition agreement, the regional governors' posts were divided among the three parties at a ratio of 14:8:6. According to Bulgarian law, the Prime Minister appoints regional governors. 

So far the MRF has had governors in regions with a majority Turkish population. The controversy stems from the agreement whereby each party will receive a governor's post in a region where the party did not achieve a victory in the parliamentary elections.  

The three ruling parties have negotiated that the BSP will appoint governors in Blagoevgrad, Bourgas, Vidin, Kurjali, Pazardjik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Sofia, Silistra, Turgovishte, Haskovo and Shoumen. NMSII takes Vratza, Gabrovo, Veliko Turnovo, Kyustendil, Montana, Stara Zagora, Rousse and Sliven. The MRF gets Varna, Sofia-district, Dobrich, Yambol, Smolyan and Lovech.

On September 8, the Prime Minister will put the 28 regional governors to a vote.