BULGARIAN POLITICAL REACTIONS TO THE BREXIT VOTE

Speaking to journalists in Bulgaria’s Parliament on 24^th of June, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said the UK leave vote was a bad day for Europe.  He added that the results of this decision would become clear in the next years and reveal how it would influence the remaining EU countries and Bulgarians who live in the UK.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said he respected the choice of the UK nation, although from now on it would be heavily divided and what would be good or bad would be consequences for them.

“From this point on, EU has to show that it can go on without the UK, that the UK have to be left alone to decide their fate and we should start thinking about Europe without them”,  Borissov said  and added that there should be no talks about special status because it would break the union.

“Bulgaria would be affected, the EU becomes weaker, and when it is weaker you see how the markets react, I warned about that, how the pound is dropping. The consequences are for everyone, he said.

MPs from other parliamentary groups commented they were surprised by the UK leave vote and highlighted it might possibly have a domino effect and similar referendums to be held in other EU members states.  They also said  that UK’s decision was a sign that there should be reforms in the EU.

Antoni Trenchev of the Reformist Bloc, the centre-right coalition that largely supports Bulgaria’s government, said that the UK referendum result was bad news.

“We find ourselves on an unmarked map, it is not clear what will happen. We should be calm and rational in reacting. For me, the biggest risk at the moment would be a wave of such referendums in all EU counties and in my opinion this should be prevented. We should keep calm and the moves should be well considered . I think the European idea for all Bulgarians and for me personally is a value,” Trenchev said.

Krasimir Karakachanov from the Patriotic Front, a supporter of the government in Parliament said that it happened because for 20 years there had been talk in Europe that this EU, the way it was governed, would not reach a good end. “ It is not normal some unelected EU officials to have so much power over national states and define the fate of whole countries, whole branches in the economy and whole regions in Europe. That in fact was the British “No”. The truth is that EU cannot continue to exist the way it has existed. I already said about the bureaucracy in Brussels. From now on there are two scenarios – either Europe will go into some normal frames of development i.e. will respect the sovereignty of the national states and will be an economic union or if it goes on in the same manner, there would be other countries to leave. See what the effect was in France – they are talking about a referendum.

Dzhema Grozdanova from the centre-right GERB: "The domino effect will start no matter what the result of the UK’s referendum would have been. I am surprised by the big difference in the voting – a majority of 1 million British citizens voted  in favour of exiting the EU. This will be a problem for Britain itself, because of the effect not only on the EU, but the effect on their country too. You know that in Scotland there was a referendum on independence, and Northern Ireland also will have the opportunity to launch this topic,” Grozdanova said. The effect for Bulgaria and for all smaller EU members states, the newest members, not the older democracies, which started this topic, will not be positive and in all areas – economic, political and security. There is a lot of talk recently on the topic of security. UK exiting the EU is mainly related to that, in my opinion, she said.

Rumen Yonchev from the Bulgarian Democratic Centre said that the Bulgarian citizens, who are not few, living in the UK and those who work there and those studying, in the longer term have to comply with those new conditions. This means that, firstly, the tuition fees will no longer be the same as the ones in the EU, after a number of years when the UK’s exit from the EU becomes a fact. Secondly, the labour conditions and the free movement of people in the EU will not apply to the UK, i.e. all rights that Bulgarians enjoyed in the UK will have to be reviewed.  It is unfortunate indeed, that because of a few hundred thousand immigrants from Eastern Europe, the British public is misled by this wave and actually will pay a much higher price.

Kristian Vigenin, foreign policy spokesperson for the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party: “ The EU must take steps to stay united - only this way it will be useful to the Member States. It is important how the EU leaders and the European institutions react to the results of the referendum in the UK to leave the EU. We have to fend off what led to this decision and that such sentiments exist in other member states. In his words, we need to see what is the biggest lesson and what should be done immediately to improve the image and functioning of the EU. “The Government of Bulgaria should seek international cooperation to protect the Bulgarians in the UK”, he said. Vigenin agreed that the exit of Britain from the EU would have consequences for the Bulgarians living there.  That in the framework of the negotiations ahead, it was not clear what status EU citizens, now in the UK and having the same rights as British citizens, would have,” he said.

Kornelia Ninova, leader of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party: “We respect the decision of the British citizens, it is a lesson for the EU and Europe to start an urgent change into the direction of going out of the bureaucracy, formalism and blue collar attitude to the problems and move towards resolving the real issues of the European citizens - the economy, social security ... We want the Bulgarian government to firmly defend the interests of those 250,000 Bulgarian citizens who study, live and work in the UK and protect the national interests of Bulgaria and to launch an analysis of the impact of this decision on the Bulgarian economy, finance, budget, etc. We insist to begin analyzing how it will affect the EU budget, how it will affect the equitable distribution of EU funds from now on, the budget of Bulgaria and Bulgaria's economy, Bulgaria’s exports, trade with the EU, this is our biggest trading partner. The Bulgarian government should identify measures to respond to the consequences for Bulgaria.

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