The topic of North Macedonia caused heated arguments in Bulgaria’s Parliament

Scandals and accusations of national betrayal in Parliament on June 15 during the hearing of outgoing Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska after the majority rejected the proposal to be held behind closed doors.

The opposition was outraged that in this way she could not make public the content of memos of talks the Prime Minister had with senior diplomats and officials in Brussels, in which he had made commitments that differed from the official Bulgarian position.

The Speaker of Pareliment’s refusal closed the sitting and led to a petition for his resignation.

5 minutes after the quaestors closed the doors for the closed sittiing, the chairperson of “We Continue the Change” group announced another decision.

"The motion was that this hearing be held behind closed doors. It was not supported by the hall. Let all members of the public who are interested in the issue of North Macedonia hear what the foreign ministry has to say," said Andrei Gyurov, chairman of the parliamentary group of "We Continue the Change".

The opposition accused the government of not wanting to disclose secret information through procedural tricks. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms left the hall.

"When the Foreign Minister refers to a document that is in a report that has been tabled in the Parliament, that is classified as secret, that is outrageous of the Speaker. With petty chicanery in this political crisis and in this situation we will not be able to solve anything. That is why I am leaving," added Mustafa Karadayi of the MRF.

After it became clear that the Foreign Minister could not disclose secret information in an open sitting, Toshko Yordanov of “There is Such a People” told what he had personally learned from the Prime Minister about the memo describing his conversation with Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi on 17 February.

"The Prime Minister was furious because the memo was sent to the President and 10 ambassadors. He read it out loud to me about the meeting with Olivér Várhelyi, inside there are 8 things that Várhelyi said that had been said by the Prime Minister - about arrangements between the Prime Minister and Varhei. The Foreign Minister makes an objection that this was not agreed and the Prime Minister says "from this it is clear that I am a national traitor, I want the resignations of the one who wrote the notes and the deputy minister", said Toshko Yordanov from "There is Such a People".

The outgoing Foreign Minister said she had received a draft of a new framework position.

"On 5 April, the foreign policy adviser to the Prime Minister sent his own draft for an update of the framework position, but its content rather suggests a revision of the Bulgarian national position, this new draft position does not include the Bulgarian position on the Macedonian language," said Teodora Genchovska, outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Slavi Trifonov, leader of "There is Such a People”(which quitted the coalition), through a Facebook post, accused the Prime Minister of revising the Bulgarian national position through "his parallel foreign minister" Vesela Cherneva.

The left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) criticised the opposition and said that through the issue of North Macedonia, they were sabotaging the adoption of the updated budget.

"I am angry now, because this National Assembly decided and it was decided by "Vazrazhdane", GERB, MRF and some MPs from "There is Such a People" decided to focus the attention of the state not on the topic of incomes, budget, pensions, taxes, but on North Macedonia. To someone in this hall, Macedonia is more important than Bulgaria and this is shameful," stressed Yavor Bozhankov from the BSP.

"Vazrazhdane" defined the position of the socialists as unacceptable.

"Macedonia is Bulgaria, Mysia is Bulgaria, Thrace is Bulgaria, Dobrudzha is Bulgaria. And when we talk about Macedonia - we are talking about millions of Bulgarians. We are talking about the Bulgarian national interest," Kostadin Kostadinov of "Vazrazhdane" said.

Slavi Trifonov's party, “There is Such a People”, again asked for a closed sitting.

"The national betrayal is a fact in the public space. Now we have to prove it with documents in a closed sitting, because Mr. Speaker, all MPs are Bulgarian citizens, the update will happen, but never and in no way should the Prime Minister sell the history," said Stanislav Balabanov of “There is Such a People”.

"We Continue the Change" accused Trifonov's party of pursuing cheap electoral dividends.

"Mr Balabanov,who went down the slide that TISP minister, TISP deputy minister, to save TISP, which is falling apart and which will not enter the next Parliament, are talking complete nonsense," said Nastimir Ananiev of “We Continue the Change”.

GERB also asked the speaker of the Parliament to close the sitting.

"I appeal to you, not as Speaker of the National Assembly, but as a true Bulgarian, to make sure that foreign Minister Genchovska acquaints us with what she has come to do, to see whether a there is a national traitor at the the of the government or not. I turn to you as a person whom I respect", said Alexander Nenkov from GERB.

Parliament Speaker Nikola Minchev refused and this blew up the hall.

"I just cast an eye on whether 80 people shouted resignation to submit the request. You are welcome. Submit it," Nikola Minchev said.

MRF, TISP, GERB and "Vazrazhdane" collected the necessary signatures for his resignation, which will be discussed tomorrow in plenary.

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