Lawmaker Daniel Mitov said at a briefing that GERB-SDS is collecting signatures for an emergency session of parliament, with a closed part, over the attacks in the Black Sea. According to the party, two more ships have been hit, three miles from Bulgarian territorial waters.
This report follows our earlier story on Democratic Bulgaria's request for an emergency hearing in parliament after the drone strike on ships in the Black Sea.
Mitov asked that the prime minister and the defence minister appear before MPs, set out the government's reasoning and say what the security services know. The closed part is for the evidence gathered and the information from partner services, added MP Georg Georgiev.
Mitov said the session will show whether the ruling majority is ready to work with the opposition on the security problems caused by Russian aggression and the war in Ukraine. He called the majority's reluctance to meet in parliament a "refusal of parliamentarism".
Mitov said that when an aggressor is not named and no one is held to account, the aggressor takes it as weakness and as a chance to move into the security space of a side that is not firm enough. The Black Sea has become a place where Bulgarian diplomacy only waits while threats grow, he said. In his view, NATO guarantees security, but the state must first voice its concern. The alliance does not tell its members what to do, he said. It asks for an assessment of their security, and when concerns are raised, its mechanisms are triggered.
Georgiev said that last week GERB-SDS warned that without a firm and clear answer to the aggressor, a repeat would not be long in coming. He said Erdogan spoke with Putin that same week. A soft position, or no position, brings no benefit, Georgiev added. Everyone is for peace, he said, but not for giving up national security. He said nothing like this happened while GERB was in government.
Georgiev called Prime Minister Radev's summoning of Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova a smokescreen. In his view, the ambassador is not on a par with the prime minister, and other levels must act first, namely the Foreign Ministry. Radev could call Peskov, Putin or Erdogan and ask in plain words: "Are you the ones we owe these explosions to?"
Georgiev doubts that Ukraine is trying to kill its own people rather than just disrupt its own supply chains. Priorities, he said, are connectivity, security of supply, safe routes, infrastructure and energy, while incidents are tolerated near the borders. He asked which carrier or which transport, shipping or energy operator will choose the Black Sea, where ships are blown up and people die.
Mitov added that the question is what is happening to security and whether the ruling majority is ready to respond properly. The party will call for resignations later, he said. Asked by a journalist, he replied that it is not Trump who decides who is president of Ukraine, but the Ukrainian people.