Igor FedykThe President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev returned to the parliament for reconsideration of the law on the ratification of the agreement, according to which Bulgaria should provide (donate) Ukraine with 100 armored personnel carriers.
Explaining his decision, the Bulgarian president noted that the MPs are not sufficiently familiar with the specific parameters of the donation, which makes it impossible to objectively assess Ukraine’s need for this equipment. In particular, he emphasized that the MPs did not take into account the wartime tasks assigned to the Ministry of Interior and the needs of border guards and firefighters. “The armored transport equipment offered to Ukraine can be used precisely for the protection of the Bulgarian border and for assisting the population in case of disasters and accidents, including in the hard-to-reach areas. I am convinced that the safety, health, and life of Bulgarian citizens should be the main priority,” the president said.
Minutes after the Rumen Radev’s statement, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said that the majority in the parliament would override the president’s veto. “This veto will be overcome. That’s why I don’t see anything to comment on,” the prime minister said.
Speaker of the Parliament Rosen Zhelyazkov also said that the veto will be overridden. “Bulgaria’s foreign policy is based on the goal written in the Constitution, which is to promote the establishment of a just international order,” Zhelyazkov said. Commenting on the president’s words, he emphasized that the Bulgarian MPs were sufficiently informed and made a reasoned decision.
For his part, commenting on the president’s position, Delyan Peevski, head of “The Movement for Rights and Freedoms” parliamentary group, called the president’s decision a disgrace and noted that after it “it became even more categorically clear how important it is for Bulgaria to have a Euro-Atlantic parliamentary majority and a Euro-Atlantic government supported by it”. “Therefore, the National Assembly this week must override the president’s veto, thus confirming our support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” the Bulgarian MP added.
The agreement on the free-of-charge transfer of armored personnel carriers was signed in August 2023 between the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. MPs from the “We Continue the Change” – “Democratic Bulgaria” coalition, GERB, “The Movement for Rights and Freedoms” and “There is Such a People” voted in favor of sending the armored personnel carriers. The pro-Russian “Renaissance” and the Bulgarian Socialist Party were against it.
Comment: The veto of the Bulgarian president on the sending of armored personnel carriers to Ukraine was, in general, expected, given his negative attitude towards the delivery of military aid to Ukraine and his sympathy for Russia.
Although the decision of the Bulgarian president is unpleasant, because it postpones the transfer of armored personnel carriers to Ukraine for some time, it does not mean a tragedy. Today, there’s a pro-Western majority in the Bulgarian parliament, which will easily override the presidential veto. Now it is important that the Bulgarian MPs don’t delay the re-voting and give the green light to the sending of armored vehicles to Ukraine as soon as possible.
As for President Radev’s anti-Ukrainian decision, it was motivated by his desire to show his pro-Russian voters that he continues to defend his positions regarding Ukraine and the Russian-Ukrainian war. In other words, Rumen Radev is already actively preparing for political life after the end of his second presidential term. It is obvious that he sees the continuation of his political career as the leader of a leftist/pro-Russian political project.
