site.btaGERB Leader Comments on Socialist Leader's Visit to Beijing

Asked to comment on a recent visit to China by Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov, who is also leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, GERB leader Boyko Borissov told the press on Thursday: "No one can stop a party leader from going to Beijing."

The Socialist Party is part of the government coalition led by GERB-UDF.

"Every party has its own leaders and its own policy," Borissov said. "As far as I know, Zafirov went there as party leader, and their century-old party has always had such a policy. They were also a coalition partner of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria [for a few months in 2021-2022]. I do not interfere in the work of other parties. As far as I know, China has not been declared an enemy state. To my knowledge, [Continue the Change leader] Assen Vassilev works very well with China, and he himself has said that cooperation with China is necessary. So as not to involve the government, they [Zafirov and Regional Development Minister Ivan Ivanov] went while on leave and at their own expense," Borissov added.

"I did not send people from GERB there because we have a lot of work, but Bulgaria has not withdrawn from the 17+1 format, and I have not heard the European Commission, through the foreign minister, issue a directive against visiting China. The European Central Bank President has also visited Beijing," Borissov noted. He told the reporters: "You are trying to turn this into a scandal where none exists."

Borissov also said that GERB had not sent representatives to China because some of the leaders present there are not acceptable, given his party's foreign policy orientation.

Asked if it is appropriate for Atanas Zafirov to continue as Deputy Prime Minister, Borissov said the difference between himself and other politicians in Bulgaria was his experience, based on which he had not sent GERB representatives.

"By the same logic, just a few days ago President Putin was in the US with President Trump and stood next to him. Should we now start asking why Bulgarian officials visit the US?," Borissov added.

As for criticism that he had usurped the Prime Minister's functions during European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's visit to Bulgaria on August 31, while Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov was reduced to a mere figurehead, Borissov said he had been invited and simply talked about what had been agreed with representatives of Rheinmetall. "I have enough power even as an ordinary MP," he added.

Asked to comment on Wednesday's protest and on an upcoming protest calling for Borissov and [MRF-New Beginning leader Delyan] Peevski's ouster from power", Borissov said that Wednesday saw protests organized by various parties, and that they had all turned professional protesters. "There will always be discontented people everywhere. As for the two you mention, Borissov and Peevski, neither of us is in the executive. What power are we supposed to step down from? Do they want to stop me from being an MP? I was elected by the people with twice as many votes as them. The worst lawlessness of state capture was our arrest, but the people punished them by casting more votes for GERB," Borissov said. He was referring to his own arrest in 2022, along with his former finance minister and with GERB's PR officer, under the government led by Continue the Change. Borissov was promptly released and the court later declared the arrest unlawful.

"I am concerned about protests when I am prime minister. Now I even feel like going to a protest myself," he said, adding that he himself would protest against state capture.