site.btaUnited Patriots Want Municipal Administration to Be Bound by Law to Speak Bulgarian

Varna, on the Black Sea, October 28 (BTA) - The United Patriots, who are part of the government coalition, are drafting a new law which is to protect the Bulgarian language from indiscriminate use of borrowings from foreign languages and to require that Bulgarian is the only language spoken at municipal administrative offices.

Iskren Vesselinov, deputy floor leader of the United Patriots, told a news conference in Varna on Saturday that many people had complained that a language other than the official language was spoken in some town halls.

The new legislation should ban the numerous notices in the Roman alphabet without a Bulgarian inscription. No penalties have been imposed for this so far, said Vesselinov.

Preventing the spread of radical Islam in Bulgaria will remain a priority of the United Patriots. A law should ban the foreign financing of religious denominations and any donations should be controlled by the Religions Directorate and the National Audit Office. Preaching should be in Bulgarian only, said Vesselinov. He recalled that a bill had been introduced in Parliament which criminalizes the spread of radical Islam and the politicization of religious denominations.