Bulgarian PM Assuages Shale Gas, ACTA Fears

Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, vows to not retreat on recent decisions under possible pressure from the US. Photo by BGNES

Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, has vowed to not revise the ban on hydrofracking until Bulgarian people have even one single worry about exploration of shale gas in the country.

Borisov made the statement in an interview for the State TV BNT in answering a question from the host if he would retreat from the ban if US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, asks him to do so, during her visit to Sofia Sunday.

"I will tell Hillary that the American company Chevron had a hectic approach and downplayed fears of Bulgarian people over the exploration and extraction of shale gas. I told Bulgarians as early as the summer that I will not allow a study that will harm the environment," said he.

Regarding the other recent thorny issue – the signing by Bulgaria of the controversial international ACTA agreement, Borisov stated that "wannabe" politicians are using it to attack once again Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, and reminded that it had been the previous cabinet to give mandate to the European Commission to sign the document.

"Our Ambassador in Japan signed it precisely because of that. The good thing is that ACTA has to be ratified by local Parliaments, and ours will ratify it in a way so that it complies with Bulgarian laws," the PM explained.

When approached by the host with a request to comment if he felt sometimes sorry about speaking too hastily, Borisov said that his parents were poor and he went only to the local high school in his native Sofia suburb of Bankya, unlike predecessor and leader of the Socialists, Sergey Stanishev, who had the opportunity to study in Moscow.

"But I thank my parents for making me strong. It is better to say something stupid than use pretentious words to not say anything – like former President, Georgi Parvanov, who can talk for one hour without saying anything," the country's leader stressed.

Borisov countered attacks from Parvanov in an earlier TV interview with the statement that the latter had never been an independent President, and had always, and particularly during his last year in office, acted only led by the desire to return to the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, as its leader after the end of his second term.

"His criticism had never been constructive or above party interests. Now the State gave him offices, a car, so much, and why? To start leading new political battles – we are paying him to spit on us," the PM said.

When asked to comment on Twitter postings of First Lady, Yuliyana Plevnelieva, critical on him and his ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, Borisov answered that Plevnelieva had a "caustic, but accurate language."

"I don't care what their families do at home. I have the duty to and I do respect the wives and the girlfriends of my colleagues – if they like them, I like them too," the PM explained.

Commenting on the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union or the so-called EU Fiscal Pact which Bulgaria signed over the week in Brussels, Borisov vowed that the country will not pay for the mistakes of other EU Member States.

"If Bulgarian people had been misled to vote for populists, we would now had to face what Greece is facing," the PM concluded.

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