Vigenin: Bulgaria has to stand firmly on European positions and not be left alone

“Staying alone at this moment is the deepest and most strategic mistake Bulgaria can make. Our only path is to stand on European positions and to act together with our partners.” With these words Bulgarian MEP Kristian Vigenin from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats commented in the programme “120 Minutes” on bTV on the complex international environment and the growing geopolitical risks. In his view Bulgaria has to pursue a consistent and responsible foreign policy.

Vigenin expressed serious reservations about the so-called “Peace Council” initiated by Donald Trump, stressing that this is not a standard international body, but a structure with a legal framework that directly threatens democratic principles and national sovereignty. In his words the statute of this organisation provides for a lifelong chairman with extremely wide powers, including taking decisions single-handedly, appointing governing bodies and even dissolving the structure itself.

“Any reasonable reading of this charter should make every democratic government run away from such participation, because joining an organisation like this is a direct blow against our own sovereignty,” Vigenin said. He added that initiatives of this kind undermine the role of the United Nations instead of reforming it in a legitimate way.

The MEP also drew attention to the serious domestic legal problems around the Bulgarian government’s signing of the charter. In his view the question of Bulgaria’s participation should be left to the next National Assembly, and in the meantime the Constitutional Court should be asked to assess whether such a document is compatible with the Bulgarian Constitution.

Vigenin was categorical that Bulgaria should not act in a “stooped position” and join every new initiative automatically. “The fact that a Bulgarian diplomat holds a leading position in such a structure does not mean that Bulgaria is obliged to take part in it,” he stressed.

On the country’s general foreign policy orientation, Vigenin said that the only real protection for Bulgaria is unity within the European Union. “Today Denmark has a problem, tomorrow it could be another country. If the strong start taking territories at their own discretion, we are among the first who will suffer,” he warned, and underlined that every attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states has to meet firm resistance.

The BSP: the need for a new face and a return to core values

In the interview Kristian Vigenin also commented on the challenges facing the BSP, stressing that the party is at a critical moment and needs clear change. In his words the BSP has to return to its original values as a party of change: “A party that wants a just state, social justice, that wants a transparent and effective judicial system, everything that was among our priorities and that in these months of crisis over the past year was left somewhat in the background.”

The MEP added that compromises have limits and that when those limits are crossed it becomes a problem. “We have to break away categorically from GERB and DPS, from Borissov and Peevski. Our participation in government and the way it ended created a heavy image problem for the BSP,” he was categorical.

Vigenin believes the BSP needs a younger leader, more young people on the lists and a strong team that can win back voters’ trust and give a clear perspective for the future. “The fight for change is a shared one . So that young people can identify with a different BSP, oriented towards the future, principled, honest and, of course, European. And together with that, to show that we have learned our lesson, that compromises have limits and when they are crossed , that is already a problem for us,” the MEP noted. In conclusion he emphasised: “I believe that in this campaign and in our policies from here on we have to say clearly that our partner in the future would be Rumen Radev’s project, after we see, of course, his policy, the people involved and what he commits to.”