site.btaUPDATED GERB-UDF to Vote in Favour of US Tanker Aircraft Deployment at Bezmer Air Base

"GERB-UDF will vote in favour of the deployment of US tanker aircraft at the Bezmer Air Base, but the position of the majority is not clear," Georg Georgiev MP of the largest opposition group told a media briefing here on Monday.

He commented on a statement by Prime Minister Rumen Radev earlier in the day that the Government will seek Parliament's authorization for the stationing of the US in-flight refuelling aircraft at the military airfield in Southeastern Bulgaria. 

In February, the tankers were deployed at Sofia Airport on different grounds than the grounds on which the US request comes now, which is why authorization must be granted by the National Assembly, he explained. In his words, this is where the facts are actually manipulated.

Georgiev, who is Deputy Chair of the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee, said that the US request in February and, accordingly, the authorization granted by then Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov, was about a NATO-related exercise. "These are Allied commitments which do not require authorization from the National Assembly, and the defence minister is empowered to grant it," he explained. "Unlike then, the US now requests by a note the deployment of these aircraft for an operation in the Middle East, as Prime Minister Radev reported," the MP said. "This requires National Assembly authorization, but Prime Minister Radev probably forgets or still feels a president [which he was from 2017 to 2026] but is now actually leader of the largest entity represented in Parliament. In this sense, the full majority is subservient to Prime Minister Radev's decisions, and today we didn't hear the stand that this majority will take," Georgiev commented.

"Being a consistent and systemic party, with clearly expressed political positions, GERB will vote in favour of granting such authorization, but ultimately the majority will have the final say, and the Prime Minister hiding behind the majority at this point is, to put it mildly, odd and perplexing because this majority will do his bidding and, in this sense, he could have said clearly and categorically what and how he will do in the National Assembly," the opposition MP said. "All the more so that now I don't see Bulgaria being included in the US Visa Waiver Program," he added. Georgiev asked have the US visas been waived, are they on the way of being waved, so that the subject of the presence of the aircraft on Bulgarian territory is back on the agenda.

He was referring to a phone call between Radev and US President Donald Trump on May 19 during which the Bulgarian PM said he had raised the issue of waiving US visas for Bulgarians in the context of the ongoing stationing of USAF aircraft at Sofia Airport.

"If someone has assumed that some aerobatics stint has been performed so far, after today's statements by Prime Minister Radev we are certain that the State or at least its foreign policy is in a free fall," the GERB-UDF MP commented. "I don't know whether internal consumption was targeted yet again, but one more make-believe was engaged in to show that Bulgaria is pursuing a policy oriented at what the Government calls the national interest," he added. 

For his part, Hristo Gadzhev MP of GERB-UDF and Deputy Chair of the parliamentary Defence Committee said that, when the aircraft deployment comes up for debate in Parliament, the Defence Ministry will be requested to provide both notes - the one of February and the one of July. Gadzhev said that on Sunday they had been notified of an extraordinary meeting of the Defence Committee on Tuesday, and even the MPs of Progressive Bulgaria were not clear about the agenda. "Clearly, this is this week's most urgent matter for the Government. Let us see what decision they will adopt today, but the reasons are obviously different. Participation in an exercise in February is one thing, and participation in combat operations and using the airfields for such kind of missions now is another," he commented. "As to whether they will be based at Bezmer only remains to be seen because, one way or another, they must come to the Vrazhdebna Air Base [near Sofia] for refuelling," the opposition MP also said.