Bulgarian Socialist Party

The statement of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev that Bulgaria should not provide weapons to Ukraine became headline news for the media in Kyiv and received a wide negative response in one of the most visited Ukrainian news channels on Telegram - NEXTA live.

The Bulgarian government takes its oath in parliament. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

"We're against a policy that marginalises Bulgaria and causes the country to be defined by cowardice," said Democratic Bulgaria's co-leader Hristo Ivanov.

Accusations of betrayal over North Macedonia

"We Continue the Change" marks a new decline in support, which allows GERB to overtake them. "Vazrazhdane" (Revival/Възраждане) registered growth for the second consecutive month. More than half of Bulgarians believe the government will not serve a full term. 47% are of the opinion that early parliamentary elections are not necessary.

Saturday's opening of a Bulgarian cultural club in the North Macedonia town of Bitola named after Ivan Mihailov, a controversial 20th Century nationalist movement leader who became a Nazi collaborator, has been criticised as a threat to ongoing attempts to achieve a breakthrough in the two countries' dispute over history.

The Ministry of Electronic Government is developing a comprehensive system for remote electronic voting, Minister Bozhidar Bozhanov announced on BNT. An opinion on it is expected from the Central Election Commission (CEC).

"Bulgaria will provide military-technical assistance to Ukraine - this proposal of 'Democratic Bulgaria' will be voted on next week." This was announced by the co-chairman of the DB party Atanas Atanasov.

The draft decision for this was submitted on Friday.

At the last minute, the government changed its proposal for defense minister. Instead of Todor Tagarev, announced yesterday, the cabinet will nominate Dragomir Zakov.

Kiril Petkov announced the change. The new candidate is Bulgaria's permanent representative to NATO.

Bulgaria: New Candidate for Minister of Defense has been Announced

The Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia after being painted in the colours of Ukrainian flag in 2014. Photo: Source, Wikipedia, Vassia Atanassova, CC BY-SA 3.0

All parliamentary parties, except Vazrazhdane, condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics of Ukraine as independent states. A joint declaration of the National Assembly was not reached, and the parties of the ruling coalition failed to gather for such a meeting.