The nominations for the European list of the Bulgarian liberals (NDSV) were announced last week. The nominated are mainly women with high profile in politics, among them ministers, members of parliament and the Bulgarian commissioner Meglena Kuneva. Let's see who exactly got nominated to take a shot at an MEP post.
First, there's the present party MEP Bilyana Raeva.
Ms. Raeva has worked in the public administration before being surprisingly nominated to lead the NDSV list for the 2007 European elections in Bulgaria and subsequently become the party's representative in the European parliament. What not many people know about Bilyana Raeva is that besides being an A student she was also a republican skateboard champion at school.
Second comes the lady who also came second in 2007.
Antonia Parvanova came just short of replacing Bilyana Raeva as NSDV's only MEP - she needed just 5000 more voter preferences to come on top of the liberal list. Ms. Parvanova is a member of the Bulgarian Parliament now, serving her second term and medic by education.
The next in line is the Bulgarian European Affairs minister - Gergana Grancharova.
Just a week ago Gergana Grancharova married the former foreign minister Solomon Passi and changed her last name respectively. She's been European Affairs minister since her predecessor Meglena Kuneva was appointment to be the first European Commissioner from Bulgaria in 2007.
Last but not least in this line of nominations comes Meglena Kuneva.
If the other three candidacies could be grouped under the nickname "The Beautiful" then Ms. Kuneva comes to represent "The Bold". Nicknamed "Ms. Yes" during Bulgaria's accession negotiations with the EU, she became a Commissioner in 2007 when the country finally joined the union. Rumor has it, she will be offered the first position in the party list for the European elections in June.
The funny thing is not too many men names were mentioned when the nominations became known, but hey, who needs men when and if such a list is put together? The only risk is that voters might think it's all about a beauty pageant and not elections at stake. It will be up to the candidates to avoid blending the EU issues with the race for the crown in such a list.
P.S. To stop any speculations from the very beginning - I am NOT planning to vote for the liberals.
