(ANSA) - SOFIA, JUNE 5 - Bulgarian nationalist party VMRO, which is part of the ruling center-right coalition led by the GERB party, harshly criticized the Gay pride scheduled for June 8 in Sofia, in a press release issued today by the media local. "Our nation is based on the values and principles of the traditional Christian family and we believe that such an event should absolutely not take place," the press release reads.

"Family means only one thing: a mother, a father, and their children. There is not and there cannot be a family of same-sex couples, there is no gender change," the release continued. "It is unacceptable that this group of people demands additional rights which, in addition to being contrary to nature, are also contrary to the supreme law of the State, the Bulgarian Constitution, whose article 46 explicitly states that "marriage is a voluntary union between a man and a woman", the VMRO press release reads. The Gay Pride was organized for the first time in Bulgaria in 2008 with the motto "Me and my family ". This year's edition is entitled "Do not give power to hatred, give it to love!". The Bulgarian nationalist parties and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church are notoriously opposed to the demonstration.

(ANSA).