Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

PM Denkov and President of the National Assembly Zhelyazkov:

Parliament will overcome veto on sending armored personnel carriers to Ukraine

Rosen Zhelyazkov
Photo: BTA

"The president's veto on helping Ukraine with armored vehicles will be overridden immediately, so I don't see anything to comment on," Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said in Shumen, where he was participating in an academic community discussion on the future of higher education.

Later Nikolai Denkov said that the arguments for the presidential veto were not adequate. He recalled that the armoured personnel carriers that will be sent to Ukraine have not come into use for decades, which proves that they are not needed in Bulgaria. ''The argument that they can be used in warfare can also be disputed because if the Bulgarian army is well-equipped, let's say with Stryker fighting vehicles, these armoured personnel carriers would be more of a hindrance than help", Premier Denkov added.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Rosen Zhelyazkov, voiced a similar position: "The Constitution clearly defines the goals of foreign policy and one of them is the establishment of a just international order, so Bulgaria's position on the war in Ukraine is consistent. There is a majority to override the president's veto.”

"President Rumen Radev has once again demonstrated an inadequate position for a head of state of an EU and NATO country", GERB’s position reads. The party states that the majority in the parliament has a consistent Euro-Atlantic policy in support of Ukraine's right to defend its citizens and territories.

According to the chairman of the parliamentary group of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Delyan Peevski, the decision of the head of state can be described as shameful and therefore the MPs must overcome the veto this week and confirm the support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

According to "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" the veto is political hypocrisy. On the occasion of Rumen Radev's words that the military equipment can also be used by "Civil Defense", MP Ivaylo Mirchev said: "I hope the president does not want to return to those times when APCs were used against protesting Bulgarian citizens.”

BSP would support President Radev's veto, BSP leader Kornelia Ninova said. "The president's motives almost completely coincide with our statements from the parliamentary rostrum. This has been our position from the beginning and it will be so until the end," she added.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

EU report urges North Macedonia to include Bulgarians in the constitution

North Macedonia has still not adopted the necessary constitutional amendments aimed at including Bulgarians and other non-majority communities in the constitution. This is stated in the annual report of the European Commission on the progress of EU..

published on 11/3/25 5:22 PM

"Vazrazhdane" party hold protest against the euro and the visit of Christine Lagarde to Sofia

With shouts "No to the euro", about a hundred supporters of "Vazrazhdane" gathered to protest in front of the building of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) in Sofia. The protest is being held over a planned official visit of the..

published on 11/3/25 12:40 PM
Valdis Dombrovskis

EU may cut money for Bulgaria because of delayed anti-corruption reforms

It is theoretically possible that Bulgaria could apply for a third payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan by the end of 2025, European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis announced in an interview with the Bulgarian..

published on 11/3/25 11:38 AM