site.btaParliament Sets Up Ad Hoc Committee to Check George and Alexander Soros' Activities in Bulgaria

On Wednesday, Parliament voted, 111-27 with 34 abstentions, to set up an ad hoc committee of inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding the activities of George and Alexander Soros and their foundations in Bulgaria, which finance Bulgarian natural persons, legal entities, and non-governmental organizations. The committee is also to establish their links with political parties, magistrates, educational institutions, the media, business structures, and state authorities, the MPs decided.

The draft resolution was tabled by the MRF - New Beginning parliamentary group. The votes in favour came from Vazrazhdane, MRF - New Beginning, BSP - United Left, There Is Such a People (TISP), Morality, Unity, Honor (MECh), Velichie, and four independent MPs. Twenty-seven MPs from GERB-UDF and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria voted against. Thirty-four MPs from GERB-UDF and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms abstained. 

Parliament rejected Vazrazhdane's proposal that the new committee's inquiry should include the Open Society, America for Bulgaria, Friedrich Ebert, Hanns Seidel, and Konrad Adenauer foundations.

The ad hoc committee will have 17 members, including five from GERB-UDF, three from CC-DB, two each from Vazrazhdane and MRF - New Beginning, and one representative each from BSP - United Left, Alliance for Rights and Freedoms, TISP, MECh, and Velichie.

The committee will work for three months, after which it will issue a report. Its task is to establish the facts since April 2025.

Yordan Tsonev MP of MRF - New Beginning, one of the sponsors of the bill, explained that Soros' foundations are involved in the transition period to democracy, and the committee will examine their "achievements" in taking control of the State and establishing their unregulated influence in all spheres of political life – the executive, the judiciary, political parties, and the presidential power for a certain period. According to him, even more dangerous is the influence that the Open Society network exerts on political and public life. "Many lives have been changed, people of character and professionals have been discredited in the course of this network's activities, but the greatest damage has been to public life and academic circles, where many talented and experienced teachers have suffered as a result of this network," Tsonev explained. "Our request is to clear the path of political and public life from such networks of influence, which distort the entire social environment in the country," the MP said. Tsonev recalled that in the US, state institutions recognize, in his words, the harmful influence of Soros' foundations. There is every reason to believe that this committee could give an impetus to investigations and the removal of this network in Bulgaria, the parliamentary group believes. "This negative phenomenon has nothing to do with democracy and its consolidation," Tsonev commented.