Only 112 MPs show up: Bulgarian session on Starlink arson collapses, Radev speaks anyway
Bulgaria's parliament twice failed to reach a quorum on Wednesday. Prime Minister Rumen Radev then spoke himself about the Starlink antenna arson and the arrest of the suspects in Germany.
Symbolic image · Photo: Todor Bozhinov / Тодор Божинов / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
An extraordinary sitting of Bulgaria's National Assembly on the arson attack on Starlink antennas near the village of Plana outside Sofia and on the controversial pardons of two people convicted of drug offences collapsed on Wednesday morning. Only 112 of the 240 lawmakers registered at 9 a.m., the BTA news agency reported, and a second registration 15 minutes later also failed to produce a quorum. "There is no quorum, so the sitting cannot be held," Speaker Mihaela Dotsova said, according to Fakti.bg. The sitting had been requested by GERB-SDS, We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria. Two earlier extraordinary sittings also failed for lack of a quorum, broadcaster BNT reported.
Prime Minister Rumen Radev, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev and the head of the State Agency for National Security (DANS), Plamen Tonchev, were among those due to be questioned. After the collapse, Radev spoke out himself: "Since, unfortunately, the quorum failed, we want to share this information with you," he said, according to BNT. He said the suspects' names were withheld earlier to keep them from fleeing and that Germany had been warned in time. The suspects were arrested in Germany several days ago after a European arrest warrant was issued.
Demerdzhiev said, according to BNT, that German authorities had known the identity of the alleged perpetrators since Oct. 10 but could only detain them after the warrant was issued on Oct. 19. As far as he understood, they carried out a similar act in another EU country on Oct. 18, he added. Radev also commented on the 2027 budget, Bulgaria's first in euros, saying several issues were still disputed and he did not want to rush. The sitting collapsed four days before the Nov. 1 presidential runoff between Iotova and Gyurov.