'Your peace is capitulation': Sofia protest – Radev sees old coalition behind it
Outside the presidency, protesters demanded a tougher stance after the Black Sea attacks. The PM attacked the organisers; Asen Vassilev invited him to the square.
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On Tuesday evening people rallied on Nezavisimost Square in Sofia under the slogan 'Your peace is capitulation! Your diplomacy is isolation!'. The trigger was the attacks on merchant ships in the Black Sea and drones near Bulgaria's border. According to bTV, 22 people launched the initiative, among them former defence minister Todor Tagarev, former environment minister Borislav Sandov and former ambassador to Moscow Iliyan Vassilev. The protesters want a more resolute defence policy and closer cooperation with the EU and NATO. No attendance figure was given.
'Illusions do not protect lives. Silence is not a strategy,' the organisers said. Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the organisers' plan was becoming ever clearer: 'To revive the sglobka, to whitewash Borisov and Peevski, to return to power together with them, because they cannot do it alone.' The 'sglobka' was the earlier governing arrangement built around GERB and DPS. The leader of We Continue the Change, Asen Vassilev, challenged Radev to come to the protest himself and noted that the Constitutional Court had declared parts of his budget unconstitutional that same day. Vassilev said that since Radev took office, drones had been falling on Bulgarian territory and ships had been sunk in the country's economic zone.