Bulgaria’s Blue Coalition Slams President over Defense Act Veto

Blue Coalition Co-Chairs Ivan Kostov (left) and Martin Dimitrov (right). Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s Blue Coalition has made it clear it would not back the veto imposed by President Georgi Parvanov on the amendments of the Defense Act.

Earlier during the week, Parvanov announced he would veto the Defense Act. His decision was agreed upon by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Yet, even though the Blue Coalition generally supports Borisov and his government, its Co-Chair Martin Dimitrov said the formation would vote to overrule it.

Under the Bulgarian Constitution, the veto of the President is suspensive, i.e. it can be overruled by a simple majority.

Dimitrov slammed the President for vetoing the Defense Act only because it reduced his powers as a Commander-in-Chief of the Bulgarian armed forces. He criticized the President severely for not vetoing a number of act during the term of the Stanishev government and the previous Parliament that affected Bulgaria’s national security.

“Why didn’t the President object to the attempts to legalize the uncontrolled surveillance of Bulgarian citizens? This question is a very important one given his past as a communist secret agent. What was his attitude towards the land swap deals carried out by the former government from which Bulgaria lost billions of euros? What does he think about the proof we provided that the ethnic Turkish party DPS leader – Ahmed Dogan – redistributed the funds in the state? Has he realized that he keeps his mouth shut about his sponsors who are charged with abuse of EU funds? Why didn’t he veto the deals with the corvettes, frigates, and government planes? Instead of doing all that, he just vetoed a law affecting his powers,” Dimitrov declared in Parliament Friday.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!