„Bulgaria has an interest in the war in Ukraine stopping. Bulgaria has an interest in the Black Sea once again being a sea for trade, not a sea for military conflict. We have an interest in avoiding the possibility of any new escalation of the conflict, which will inevitably affect us, since we are on the eastern flank.“ This was stated by the Bulgarian MEP from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Christian Vigenin, in an interview for the Euronews Primetime program on Euronews Bulgaria television.
Regarding the positions expressed by the Prime Minister in an interview with the same media outlet days earlier, Vigenin commented: „ For the first time, Bulgaria's voice was heard and it was the voice of reason this time. Radev is trying to say things as they are, and is not a slave to the ideological terminology that has been repeated since 2022, and the result is nothing.“ The MEP emphasized that the Prime Minister's position is neither pro-Russian nor pro-Ukrainian, but an attempt to analyze the situation through the prism of common sense. “There is a great degree of coherence, perhaps for the first time in a long time, between the messages that Radev sends and the messages that came from Iliana Yotova from the UN rostrum. They do not defend Russia, they do not attack Ukraine“, Vigenin pointed out. He believes that the criticism of Radev for these positions is unfounded: “He has not isolated Bulgaria, he has not questioned the Bulgarian or unified European policy. He questions the decisions taken so far and says: let's think about what else we can do.“
The MEP emphasized that Europe should seek peace talks. “When something doesn't work, do you have to do the same thing every time? You have to try something different“, he said. Vigenin is convinced that the European Union should seek opportunities for communication with Moscow: “Even in the EU, without admitting it publicly, we know well that there are at least talks, albeit behind closed doors, not so much about whether channels of communication with Moscow should be opened, but about who should lead this communication.“
On the topic of North Macedonia, Vigenin shared his impressions that those who believe that the commitments made should be fulfilled and that the country should finally make changes to the Constitution are considered traitors there. “I, as someone who wants North Macedonia to be part of the EU, believe that the betrayal is not on the part of those who want the country to take a firm step on the path to membership. If they had fulfilled their commitments, now North Macedonia, together with Montenegro, would literally be on the threshold of membership. And it has been blocking itself for four years and blaming Bulgaria for this“, he commented. “The authorities in North Macedonia should make efforts to win over Bulgarian citizens to their side, because the attitude at the moment is quite negative“, the MEP believes.
On the occasion of the return of Tsar Samuil's bones to Bulgaria, Vigenin recalled that North Macedonia still recognizes that Samuil was a Bulgarian king. “Regarding medieval history, I think there is some understanding that it is difficult to seek the roots of the modern Macedonian state there. Not only do we not question their state, but we are the first to recognize North Macedonia. But this does not mean that we accept our history being stolen or that what we call a common history being presented as the history of the modern Macedonian state,“ he argues.
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