The Prime Minister is not the boss of the BSP Chairman, to order him where to go and who to see. This was stated by Ivan Takov, deputy chairman of the socialist party, on bTV air regarding the reactions caused by the visit of the BSP delegation to China. The official visit is along party lines. At the invitation of the Chairman of the People's Republic of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping, a delegation led by the Chairman of the National Council of the BSP and the coalition "BSP - UNITED LEFT" Atanas Zafirov is visiting there. They attended the official military parade in Beijing on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
"It is extremely frivolous what I heard from Prime Minister Zhelyazkov that the Deputy Prime Minister, a minister and two deputy ministers are on a trip to China, commented Ivan Takov. - They are on an official visit there, not a state visit, but a party visit. And they are not excursionists. Their visit is of exceptional importance and I can only congratulate them on it. I regret that urgent commitments did not allow me to travel. Otherwise I would have been in the delegation too".
Ivan Takov described the visit of representatives of the BSP leadership to China as a good start for the development of mutually beneficial economic relations between the two countries. "This is the second economy in the world at the moment, he recalled. - All countries of the European Union strive to maintain excellent economic relations with China. It is extremely important that Bulgaria does the same. In addition, the visit is on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the victory over Hitler fascism. If someone wants us to revise this historical period, let them clearly state it. The BSP has had relations with the CCP for 76 years and a signed friendship treaty. And there is nothing more normal than to show our respect for the numerous sacrifices made by the Chinese people during World War II.
The Deputy Chairman of the BSP recalled that only two months ago Atanas Zafirov was on an official state visit to China in his capacity as Deputy Prime Minister. "I wonder why no one made any comment then," said Ivan Takov. - The truth is that certain people are currently speaking in a way that will please certain countries. These same countries, which, unlike us, maintain very good economic relations with China".
Ivan Takov said that he is not worried about the government, despite the fifth vote of no confidence announced. "I am calm because I saw what is sitting opposite - I mean the parties that are written as opposition, he commented. - I did not hear them offer any meaningful alternative. Because when you want a vote of no confidence, you say: "You are not fit to govern, we have better ideas, these are our ideas and we want power". I did not hear anything like that. The only thing that became clear is that the oppositionists are each against each other and are accusing each other in support of the government. Therefore, for me, this vote of no confidence is a waste of valuable parliamentary time. And a budget procedure is about to begin. There are also a lot of challenges ahead of us, given the change of the lev to the euro".
The Deputy Chairman of the BSP added that the main priority of the socialist party at the moment is to start the path to changing the tax model in the country. "Two months ago I proposed this priority to the Executive Bureau and it was adopted, commented Ivan Takov. - I have already developed a detailed plan on how this will happen and I will present it very soon. We are talking first of all about a non-taxable minimum. The next step is a fairer tax responsibility between the individual entities in the economy. In any case, we have recommendations from the European Union that the corporate tax should be 15%. It is extremely harmful for people like Simeon Dyankov to talk about VAT at the rate of 22%. Because VAT is a tax that hits both the poor and the rich. And if it doesn't matter much for the rich, 2% is really a lot for the poor. And with the tax-free minimum, we want to leave with the people who are most threatened and at risk from the increase in prices and the introduction of the euro, an income of 1,200 leva per year, calculated on the basis of the current minimum wage. For some, this amount may seem negligible, but for others it is of vital importance.