Bulgaria Parliament Rejects Defense Act after President Veto

33 MPs voted for the amendments, 44 MPs voted against and 62 abstained. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

The Bulgarian Parliament has rejected amendments to the Law on Defense and Armed Forces, thus supporting President Georgi Parvanov who had used his veto powers to return the Defense Act to Parliament.

33 MPs voted for the amendments, 44 MPs voted against and 62 abstained. The governing center-right GERB government MPs voted against the changes after PM Boyko Borisov gave his backing to President Parvanov’s views on the Act. GERB MPs however made it clear that there would be no compromise on the text that limits social benefits for the military.

Parvanov used his power of veto on the Defense Act amendments as he believes his authority as Commander in Chief was restricted by the proposed changes.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Socialist Party made it clear that they wanted changes to the Defense Act including to the social benefit text.

The rightist Blue Coalition voted in favor of the ammendments as they disagreed with Parvanov’s stance.

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