Krasimir Karakachanov


Krasimir Donchev Karakachanov is a Bulgarian politician, PhD in international law and international relations and historian. He is currently the leader of the IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement and Minister of Defence.

Biography

Krasimir Karakachanov claims that he does not have any roots from the Macedonian region, but as a historian he became a specialist on the Macedonian issue.
Karakachanov was a candidate in the 2016 and 2011 presidential election, winning 15% and 1% of all votes cast and placed 3rd and 10th respectively. Karakachanov took part in the 2014 European elections as part of a coalition bloc with the Bulgaria without Censorship political party. In late July 2014, Karakachanov's IMRO left the coalition to form a Patriotic Front electoral alliance together with Valeri Simeonov's National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria. With Simeonov, he is the co-spokesman for the electoral bloc.
Before 1989, during the communist era, Karakachanov, being a historian, was an informer of the Committee for State Security on Macedonian nationalism.
Karakachanov stood as the candidate of the United Patriots coalition in the 2016 presidential election, with the MP Yavor Notev of Attack as his vice presidential candidate.
They finished in third place with 573,016 votes or 14.97%.

Controversies

Karakachanov, who is currently Bulgarian deputy prime minister, used “unsocialized gypsies” to describe Roma in Bulgaria, a term critics said resembled Nazi terminology of “asocial gypsies.”