The government will not name Russia as a source of threats to national security, Yes, Bulgaria co-leader Ivaylo Mirchev said. He also accused President Iliana Yotova of lying about a drug trafficker she pardoned.
Mirchev said the campaign of Yotova, who is both the sitting president and a presidential candidate, is built on lies and division. He said her biggest lie concerns the pardoned drug dealer. She granted the pardon while she was vice president.
The background: DB calls for parliament hearing over pardon of "Petrich's Escobar"
Yotova points to the findings of a medical commission. But Mirchev said the commission nowhere recommends a pardon. The recommendation came from the pardons commission at the president's office. Yes, Bulgaria asked for the documents, but they were not provided, and the party got them another way. Nadezhda Yordanova has sent a report to the prosecutor's office.
Mirchev compared the pardoned man's medical discharge summary with that of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army commander serving a life sentence, who died in August aged 83. He said Mladic was far sicker. He asked why Yotova pardoned the trafficker instead of letting him be treated in hospital.
On security, Mirchev said the government is keeping its head down in the face of Russian threats. He said it knows the truth about the ships hit by drones in the Black Sea and about the arson attack on Starlink antennas near Sofia. Democratic Bulgaria (DB) was the first to report the arson. Bulgaria has not distanced itself from the position of the European Council, and the Lithuanian prime minister called the latest attack on Starlink part of a Russian hybrid attack.
Russian ambassador Mitrofanova said a third party could be involved in the Black Sea attack. Mirchev rejected this. Ukraine will not hit its own ships carrying grain, he said, and Russia will not hit its own tankers.
Mirchev said the government acts wrongly because it cannot name the source of the threat. The attacks on EMCO, Starlink and the ships in the Black Sea came from the same place, he said. "It must be clear who we need protection from," he said, adding that Putin will not stop at Ukraine because he is fighting the whole civilised world.
Mirchev also said the government is failing to deal with fuel prices. He said the new budget does not touch the windfall profits of Lukoil and the oil sector, and that diesel prices in Bulgaria, before excise duty and VAT, are among the highest in the EU. Democratic Bulgaria proposes a compensation of 20 euro cents a litre, which the government rejects. Germany and Greece already use this approach.
Yotova said that in recent months Bulgaria has pursued a distinct and openly stated foreign policy. The country no longer says "yes" to everything, as it did in past decades, when she said it missed out on many benefits. An active policy in this hard and dangerous situation is the right one, she said.