2024-09-12 16:22:13
GERB, Peevski’s DPS and PP-DB rejected it even before it reached the plenary hall
Kostadinov: It was copied from the American law
Pro-Russian, pro-Putinist, obscurantist and against our partners – with these definitions, the main political players in the parliament united and rejected the “Revival” bill on foreign agents. At the same time, they did it even before it reached a vote in a committee or the plenary hall.
This is another attempt by Kostadin Kostadinov’s party to push through the law. It introduces a ban for any person and any organization that has received over BGN 1,000 in foreign funding per year (outside of that from the EU) to carry out activities related to media, education, social services and foundations. They will all be declared foreign agents.
As soon as it was submitted to the previous parliament in 2022, the project caused great public dissatisfaction and sharp positions from non-governmental organizations.
The Bill is now being introduced at the very end of this Parliament and will have neither the time to be considered nor the political will to support it. This was made clear by the sharp comments of the main political forces against him on Wednesday.
The obscurantist bill on foreign agents introduced by the openly pro-Russian party “Vazrazhdane” is
a serious provocation to national security
and sovereignty of Bulgaria and the parliament must immediately reject it, demanded the chairman of DPS Delyan Peevski. His group will vote against the law, and he himself defined as unprecedented “attempts to transpose laws from Putin’s Russia into our national legislation.”
Attempts to create “blacklists” of inconvenient people, organizations, media, schools and universities and the intimidation of civil society structures are the last resort of totalitarian systems, commented Peevski. And he announced that the behavior of the parliamentary parties towards this bill will be a litmus test for their value orientation and affiliation and a very strong signal to the public.
Peevski emphasized that the citizens and Euro-Atlantic partners of Bulgaria expect the responsible leaders to unite against such a threat.
GERB will also be against the draft law, and their leader Boyko Borisov reassured our Euro-Atlantic partners in absentia.
I respect the colleagues from “Vazrazhdane”, but our umbilical cord is the EPP and the Euro-Atlantic community. They are bringing these changes against our partners in the global battle with populism and war. Our place is there. We will not support such a law. Our partners can rest easy, commented Borisov.
PP-DB also came out with a deliberate position against the law. The main reasons for their disagreement from the coalition are: violation of constitutional rights of citizens, threat to the independence of Bulgaria, as well as copying of Putin’s repressive practices to limit freedom of speech and independent journalism. According to them, the law also has a harmful effect on Bulgarian society, as it limits educational opportunities, because Bulgarian
students with scholarships from abroad may be declared “foreign agents”,
a ban on teaching and scientific activity is proposed, the activity of community centers, scientific and cultural communities and institutions is at risk. The bill is directed against civil organizations, which after 1990 did a great deal of work for Bulgaria to strengthen and preserve Bulgarian history and culture and to reduce social inequalities in Bulgarian society. commented by PP-DB.
We support the need for transparency and accountability in external funding. However, this should not be used as a pretext to limit basic democratic principles and the freedom of civil society, they are categorical from PP-DB.
A little more evasive in their position were ITN, who recently supported “Vazrazhdane” in their insistence that the parliament decide on their request for a referendum on the euro. The head of the group, Toshko Yordanov, said that there is also a law on foreign agents in the US, but he was adamant that the “Vazrazhdane” project needs a lot of corrections. However, according to him, there is no time in this parliament for the texts to pass through committees and voting in the plenary hall.
Only the leader of “Vazrazhdane” Kostadin Kostadinov defended the bill.
It is a lie that it was copied from Russian law. It is almost a one-for-one copy of the US Foreign Agent Registration Act, which works extremely well, explained Kostadinov. He explained that “the law does not provide for sanctions, but for publicity and transparency”. However, his draft law foresees both huge fines and a ban on activity.