Bulgaria’s GERB misses Srebrenica vote, meets von der Leyen instead

3 months ago 17

The party leadership of former prime minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party met with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, missing a parliamentary session about diplomatic tensions with Serbia following Bulgaria’s attempt to change its position on the UN resolution on the Srebrenica massacre.

MPs from Borissov’s party failed to turn up for the convened parliamentary session, resulting in a lack of a quorum and a failure to discuss the pre-election affair, which led to tensions between Bulgaria and Serbia.

Instead of attending the National Assembly session in Sofia, the GERB party leadership was in Plovdiv for the visit of von der Leyen.

“Welcome to Plovdiv, Ursula!” Borissov – one of von der Leyen’s main supporters for the renewal of her mandate – wrote on Facebook ahead of his meeting with her on Sunday evening.

GERB is the favourite to win the elections, with opinion polls giving it 27% support.

Last week, the vote on the UN resolution on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre led to unexpected pre-election tensions in Bulgaria, with GERB accused of adopting a pro-Russian stance in the final days of the pre-election campaign.

On Wednesday, Bulgarian media leaked documents showing that caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev tried to change Bulgaria’s position on the Srebrenica massacre at the last moment.

According to the documents, Glavchev asked Lachezara Stoeva, Bulgaria’s permanent representative to the UN, not to support the UN General Assembly resolution declaring 11 July “International Day in Memory of the Genocide in Srebrenica”.

Stoeva, refused to comply with the request, and the country supported the resolution, which Sofia had co-sponsored.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has already expressed his disappointment with Bulgaria’s position, saying he had expected Sofia to abstain.

The diplomatic affair was used by the pro-European coalition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB), GERB’s main rival.

The pro-European coalition accused Borissov and the caretaker government of serving Russian interests. On Thursday, the conservative GERB party issued a statement denying that its leader, Borissov, had pressured Glavchev to change the country’s position.

Borissov had excellent relations with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic when he led the government in Sofia until 2021. The two maintained very close ties during the construction of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline through Bulgaria, which allowed Russian gas to be supplied to Serbia and Central European countries.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)