site.btaVolya to Campaign for Referendum on Bulgaria Exiting NATO

Sofia, May 3 (BTA) - "We will go ahead with the idea of a referendum on Bulgaria's withdrawal from NATO," Volya Party leader Vesselin Mareshki said on Bulgarian National Radio on Thursday.

"This will be one of our major initiatives in the [2019] European elections campaign. In our opinion, NATO practically gives us nothing but is looting us. At present, there is talk about several billion that have to be taken from the Bulgarian people and spent on a pointless heap of junk, from which the Bulgarian people will not benefit anything. If NATO wants to be our partner, they can give us for free several aircraft instead of sucking the last money out of Europe's poorest country and practically plunging the people into an even direr poverty," Mareshki argued.

In his opinion, "a really strong and united Europe can be a peer of the US rather than its appendage." "At present other countries are making trouble in the world, and Europe is footing the bill. Why doesn't the US foot Turkey's bill, instead of Europe paying those billions?" he asked.

According to Mareshki, Europe has plundered the Bulgarian people. "They banned the construction of a new N-plant, they made us close down early our reactors, they barred us from sharing in South Stream. At the same time, they are building North Stream, Turkish Stream and all sorts of other streams. German, French and Austrian companies quite freely invest and cooperate with Russia, but China is forbidden from doing so. Instead of using us as a bridge to Russia and the East, they are turning us into a barrier to them. In practice, we are almost forced to share in the escalation of tensions. These things can be changed if genuine European patriotic entities share in government or head the EU," the Volya Party leader said.

"At present the European Union rather resembles the Soviet Union, with one feudal lord at the top, one dictator, and subservient republics, obedient subjects below. The idea of our movement is just the opposite: strong European nations forming a strong united Europe," Mareshki said.

He took part in a meeting of far-right political leaders hosted by France's Front National President Marine Le Pen in Nice on May 2. Le Pen's party accounts for about half of the just 36 seats that Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) has in the 751-member European Parliament. Volya (whose 12 MPs make it the smallest parliamentary group in Bulgaria's 240-member National Assembly) was admitted to ENF on March 1, 2018.