Bulgarian Right Wing Leader Lauds Abandon of Belene NPP

Ivan Kostov, leader of the right-wing opposition Democrats for Strong Bulgaria and former prime minister, is pictured here in parliament. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgaria's decision to halt the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project is very significant because with it the country returns to the geopolitics of Europe and NATO, according to right-wing leader, Ivan Kostov.

Kostov, who is the leader of the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, DSB, and co-Chair of the Blue Coalition, commented for the media after the breaking news that the cabinet has decided to not built a second NPP with Russia in the Danube town of Belene.

"I would compare this move with a decision from 1881 when Bulgaria had to choose the route of a large railroad – would it lead to Europe or to Russia. A Russian banker even gave money for the second option, but the Bulgarian Parliament and government had been reasonable then and decided in favor of Europe. This analogy applies to the decision on Belene," Kostov told reporters in the Parliament.

Earlier in the day, speaking in an interview for the largest private TV channel bTV, the DSB leader declared that his party will only agree to a coalition with the ruling centrist-right GERB if it scraps the Bulgarian-Russian Belene project.