Everyone knows that this is not a deal. The Americans told them: "If you don't let them in, there will be no gasoline." This was said in the program "This Morning" on bTV by the MP from "Democratic Bulgaria" Bozhidar Bojanov in connection with the US tanker planes in "Bezmer".
„In the committee on the US military aircraft at the "Bezmer" airbase, Ivaylo Mirchev voted "abstained" because we were not presented with a report from the military intelligence. That is, even the basic information was not available. Then, the next morning, the report arrived at the secret registry. Because it is secret, I cannot say what it says, but it was relatively superficial - written in a hurry“, Bozanov pointed out.
According to him, there are additional reasons why information was missing. “The most important thing is whether this is part of some deal. Is it part of a deal for the derogation for “Lukoil“, for example? Is it part of some political bargaining?“, he asked.
“The report was relatively superficial and did not tilt the decision in one direction or another. The rulers, and Prime Minister Rumen Radev personally, explained in the campaign what a huge risk the American tankers were at a Bulgarian airport. Over the years, he has called us warmongers only because we wanted to help the attacked country. Now that he has finally reached a position where he is responsible, and not just going in front of a microphone and saying two or three nice sentences, it turned out that things are a little more complicated“, commented the MP.
According to Bozanov, the populism that Radev practices and with which he has divided Bulgarian society for many years is now returning to him a little. “I said this from the parliamentary rostrum - that we will leave them alone with their own political hypocrisy and populism“.
“There is no information whether this is part of some deal. And he and his people are constantly talking about profitable deals. International relations and geopolitics are not deals, they are not scams, they are not “you to me, I to you“. They should be based on values, such as the European Union,“ believes Bozhanov.
“And since we see that he is rather backing down from the European consensus and that this is most likely a one-off deal to secure a derogation for “Lukoil“, we left him alone with his own hypocrisy,“ he said.
Bozhanov agrees that it is in Bulgaria's interest to have gasoline. “I also said that - we understand that such actions do not happen in isolation. But first we need to be told this. Let them tell us: “We will allow the planes, but then there will be gasoline, because otherwise there will be none.“
“But we were not told this either. Instead, some members of parliament from the ruling party tried to present it as a grand energy deal. Here, now we will deploy the planes, then there will be gasoline and so on. Everyone knows that this is not a deal. The Americans told them: “If you don't let them in, there will be no gasoline“, he said.
“We did not vote in the hall. These planes were already on the territory of Bulgaria. And then, and now we have not scared people, as the ruling and other political forces did, that there is a huge risk and that now missiles will start flying towards Bulgaria. I think this is the most important thing - that even in opposition we act responsibly and with our speech we do not instill fear“, Bozhanov pointed out.
Bozhanov shared that the discussion on Budget 2026, as always, was long, since the matter is quite extensive. “What we proposed were a series of measures - all of them were aimed at limiting the deficit and reducing it to 3%. They were not adopted, which is why the deficit currently remains at the levels from the time of the government of Zhan Videnov“.
„We proposed reforms - some smaller, some larger, so that this deficit would be reduced. Because the negative from it is not just a number that someone in Brussels will scold us for or will sit here unpleasantly. It stimulates inflation and gives bad signals to investors“, the MP explained.
„And Temenuzhka Petkova said that there was an 18 billion hole in the budget for 2025. Then suddenly this hole disappeared. This is always the excuse of new governments, except for ours. It is always said:
„The previous ones bequeathed us huge expenses.“ We always ask where these expenses are - give them pen by pen, as they have been saying lately. There is either no answer or it is quite untenable“, believes Bozanov.
The MP said that there were certainly some inherited costs. “They are not ours, since the last budget we participated in voting on was for 2024. Now it is 2026“.
“The accumulation of debt can be very easily verified. A colleague from “We continue the change“ carries a graph that shows every time someone mentions debt. During our government, the state debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product remained at the same level, even slightly decreasing. Then it exploded“, said Bozanov.
“There can certainly be criticism of us. We are not saying that we have done everything flawlessly. The point is that when you come with 131 votes, you have a full mandate to make substantial and deep reforms. Now they say: “We will do them in 2027“, commented the MP.
“It took them two months to make this budget, not one, like, for example, the “Denkov“ cabinet, which also came in late spring. It took us exactly one month. When you have two months, you can put in more effort. We will see if the reforms we are proposing now will find a place in the 2027 budget,“ Bozanov pointed out.