/ world today news/ Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Bulgaria was quite normal and reasonable, but many politicians used it as an indulgence for domestic politics. They tried to shift the focus from citizens’ mistrust of the established coalition to Euro-Atlanticism. This was stated by the head of the Delegation of the Bulgarian Socialists in the EP, Petar Vitanov, in the program “This Saturday and Sunday” on bTV.
“In the European Parliament, we had the opportunity to listen to and watch Zelensky live, and in the relevant committees we worked directly with representatives of the Ukrainian government, we talked about specific projects – infrastructure reconstruction, green corridors, grain deals, etc. Bulgaria was excited by the visit of the Ukrainian president, which is a completely normal visit by a head of state from a partner country,” said Vitanov.
“Many native politicians used selfies with Zelensky as an indulgence for domestic politics, for this unpopular coalition that was created. They tried to shift the focus from the mistrust of the Bulgarian citizens to Euro-Atlanticism and to profile themselves in the intra-party competition,” said the socialist.
According to him, Bulgaria has been categorically on the side of Ukraine since the beginning of the war, and this is evident from the support it provides. He cited statistics according to which Bulgaria ranks sixth in the world in terms of aid provided to Ukraine as a percentage of GDP.
“What has changed now is the repositioning of Bulgaria from one group in the EU and NATO, the more moderate one, which believes that the decision should be political – part of it is Germany, France, Turkey, into a more extreme group from countries that see the military solution – Poland, the Baltic countries. Proof of this is the feeling that Bulgarian foreign policy is no longer made in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but in the Ministry of Defense; diplomacy is displaced by the war,” Petar Vitanov also said.
Vitanov also commented on the incident with the provision of weapons to Ukraine, which, according to him, has been happening in one form or another since the first day of the war.
“When talking about weapons, one should not ignore the fact that we are a NATO country and we must guarantee our own security and also the collective defense on the eastern front. On the other hand, there are countries that provide weapons under certain conditions. In Belgium, for example, they were very unpleasantly surprised when they saw their automatic weapons in the hands of the so-called “Russian volunteers” in Belgorod, as they prohibit the weapon from being used offensively on Russian territory. It was the same with US military Humvees. The question is whether we set similar conditions when we give arms. And the logic that “weapons should be used so that they don’t rust”, as was said, seems anti-humane to me”, added the MEP.
Vitanov also expressed doubts about the sale of the Belene nuclear reactors to Ukraine.
“We have held a referendum on the construction of the Belene NPP, we also have the memorandums signed by the previous regular government that new nuclear facilities will be built. In the EP, we have worked for nuclear energy to be included in the taxonomy and to be attractive for investments in the context of the green deal. We should not oppose the reactors in Belene and those in Kozloduy. If we have the opportunity, it would be good to build more baseload capacity at a time when we strategically need to close coal plants. If the reactors can be used by Ukraine, why can’t we? I think there was a way to find a consensus, because there are fewer and fewer people who are critical of nuclear energy,” says Petar Vitanov.
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