site.btaBSP Floor Leader Kiselova: Neynsky’s Return as Foreign Minister Is Wrong After Libya Trial

BSP–United Left Floor Leader Nataliya Kiselova said on Sunday that it was wrong for caretaker Foreign Minister Nadezhda Neynsky to return to the post years after the Libya trial. Kiselova added that Bulgaria’s foreign policy should be more moderate.

Kiselova said there were ministers with baggage from their past. She clarified that she is not referring to former caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Fair Elections Stoil Tzitzelkov, but to the caretaker Foreign Minister.

“When you have served as foreign minister, you adopt a certain stance. In my view, the firm line she is likely to pursue in foreign policy should be more moderate,” Kiselova said. “In the United States, the president is Donald Trump, not Joe Biden,” she added when asked why she considered Neynsky insufficiently moderate.

In Kiselova’s view, Neynsky would initiate procedures to appoint ambassadors.

Kiselova said ministers should be people who can guide the country through the election campaign and the elections, avoid categorical and extreme statements, and refrain from raising issues on which even regular governments would struggle to reach agreement.

“Even within legal circles, there is no consensus on whether the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) or the Prosecutors’ Chamber has the authority to appoint an acting Prosecutor General,” Kiselova said, referring to the plenary session of the SJC convened by caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and caretaker Minister of Justice Andrey Yankulov. She added that, in her view, the process should move toward electing a new SJC.

With elections approaching, no changes should be made to the Election Code, Kiselova said, commenting on President Iliana Iotova’s veto of amendments that would limit polling stations outside the European Union. She added that polling stations should remain as currently provided for. Kiselova also said there was no unified position within BSP–United Left.