Bulgarian pro-Russian party wants country to leave EU, join BRICS
Bulgaria’s largest pro-Russian party, Revival, called for the country to leave the European Union and become a member of BRICS, where Russia has a leading influence.
In parliament on Wednesday, Revival called for a referendum on delaying the country’s eurozone membership until at least 2043.
Despite support from Revival, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, and the populist There Is Such a People (European Conservatives and Reformists) party, lawmakers from the pro-European formations GERB (EPP), PP-DB (Renew, EPP) and MRF (Renew Europe) rejected the proposal to undermine Bulgaria’s full integration into the EU.
The debate was indicative of an attempt by pro-Russian forces in Bulgarian politics to spread misinformation ahead of the country’s next parliamentary elections on 27 October.
Revival leader Kostadin Kostadinov went so far as to call directly for Bulgaria to leave the EU and NATO. “If we want to have a future, we have no place in these agonising structures, which are the EU in this format and NATO. If the EU is not reformed, we must leave it because we will not die with it”, he said.
Bulgaria’s pro-Russian radical party Revival is one of the founding members of the sovereignist group in the European Parliament, along with Germany’s Alternative for Germany.
Revival’s new electoral thesis is that Bulgaria should become a member of BRICS, and the party has begun sending representatives to the organisation’s forums.
The goal of officials in Sofia is for Bulgaria to join the eurozone by mid-2025 at the latest.
Most experts argue that the realistic deadline is 1 January 2026 due to the ongoing political crisis in the country. According to the latest polls, Bulgarians are split 50-50 in favour of adopting the euro, with the main fear being price rises.
Revival MP Tsoncho Ganev said that the Bulgarian people should be asked whether they wanted to be part of the eurozone or not. Without mentioning facts to support his claim, he explained that the BRICS was a richer “club” than Western countries and that “this causes a frantic fear of the Euro-Atlantic parties to go to a referendum.”
The latest World Bank data show that Bulgaria’s GDP per capita is higher than that of any BRICS country except the oil-rich UAE, although Bulgaria still has the lowest GDP per capita in the EU.
“You dare to say that the Bulgarian people are not competent to make such decisions. Do you hear what you are saying? the Bulgarian people are competent to make such a decision,” he said, addressing the pro-European parties in parliament.
In response, Martin Dimitrov of the pro-European coalition PP-DB said: “The suspicion remains that you are trying to harm Bulgaria with this referendum, to take our country out of the EU.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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