Following Estonian 'founding member' of Libertas Igor Grazin's recent decision to deny being a member of Libertas, the anti-Lisbon Treaty pan-European party launched recently (EurActiv 03/02/09), his Bulgarian 'colleague', MP Mincho Hristov, also denied having had any contact with the new political project.
Mincho Hristov Kuminev, who describes himself as "anti-establishment", arrived in the Bulgarian parliament in 2005 as a member of the nationalist party Ataka, but left the group soon afterwards. He is now an independent MP, active in exposing corruption. The international press called him "Mincho Kuminev", according to the information provided by Libertas, but in his country he is known as Mincho Hristov.
Hristov categorically denied giving his consent to becoming a Libertas member.
"I will be very direct. I read such rubbish in the press yesterday and today, I cannot believe my eyes. Never, in any possible form you can imagine, have I applied to become a member of this party," Hristov said.
He then explained that the only person he knows who is affiliated to Libertas is former Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, who was chairman of the group for a Europe of democracies and diversities.
But he added that the contact took place in a completely different context, the two of them having participated in a press conference in Sofia organised by Bulgarian NGOs, over a corruption scheme to acquire forests in Bulgaria.
Asked if he had attended a meeting with prominent Eurosceptics from across the continent on 12 November 2008 in Dublin - also attended by Eurosceptic Czech President Václav Klaus - when the launch of Libertas as a pan-European force appears to have taken place (EurActiv 12/10/08), Hristov said he had "never set foot" there.
The Bulgarian MP intends to investigate whether someone falsified his signature in the Libertas application documents filed with the European Parliament.
