site.btaVazrazhdane Readying to Take Action against Allowing Foreign Troops on Bulgarian Territory

Vazrazhdane is starting preparations for a series of actions against allowing foreign troops on Bulgarian territory, the nationalist party's leader Kostadin Kostadinov told a news briefing in Parliament on Friday. 

Kostadinov said that two separate decisions had been taken within less than five days on the deployment of additional military units in Bulgaria: a US Stryker company and "a second NATO battlegroup - this time of British servicemen". 

Kostadinov noted that over the next couple of weeks, his party will organize a series of events and a big one in the capital Sofia. "Vazrazhdane will do everything necessary to clarify to powerholders in Bulgaria but also to people abroad that the Bulgarian people does not approve of the Government's policy and foreigners in their capital waving their flags and ordering around as if they were at home," he added.

The Vazrazhdane leader described Thursday evening's procession in support of Ukraine in Sofia as "a foreign rally" at which "only foreign flags were waved, including of terrorist organizations." "All this went without much comment, probably because the foreign flags were Ukrainian and only Ukrainian was spoken," he commented, noting that almost the entire state leadership, almost the whole Council of Ministers and almost all members of the GERB, Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria were present at the event.

According to Kostadinov, the incumbent Government, implementing a policy on foreign troop deployment on Bulgarian territory, poses a threat to national security. 

Commenting on a controversial statement by Russian Ambassador in Sofia Eleonora Mitrofanova, he noted that "Bulgarian citizens alone have the right to speak on behalf of the Bulgarian people. Even the Bulgarian Government sometimes does not have the right to speak [on behalf of Bulgarians] because the decisions taken may prove to be discrepant with what the Bulgarian people wants," Kostadinov added.   

In an interview on Russia-24 television a couple of days ago, Mitrofanova said that the Bulgarian people did not support the Bulgarian Government's rhetoric and actions against her country.