site.btaPresident Radev: Government Wants to Drag Out Rearmament Projects

Sofia, July 10 (BTA) - Speaking to the media on Monday, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said the government is shying away from implementing the projects for the upgrade of the armed forces and is trying to drag them out instead.

Radev said that with the latest government decision things had returned back to 2011, when prospective information was collected. He was approached to comment on signals from the government for a restart of the projects because of the requirement for new fighter jets.

Radev said that as someone involved in the projects he has always pushed for new, powerful and modern aircraft but that their price significantly exceeded the budgeted allocation.

The Bulgarian head of State was doubtful that the government would manage to agree a political price. "In the past ten years, I have seen many statesmen attempt to agree a political price but no one succeeded. These state-of-the-art aircraft cost considerably more that the allocation voted by Parliament."

Radev welcomed a possible government decision to spend more money as long as the public were convinced of the need.

Asked if there was miscommunication between the institutions after the initial declaration that negotiations on the new aircraft won't be delayed by the work of the ad hoc parliamentary committee, Radev said "it was utter chaos" and that he saw examples of it every day.

The President said that under the current circumstances another meeting of the Consultative Council for National Security on security and defence was pointless. "Usually these meetings are convened so that we can build up on the decisions that we have taken. So far nothing has been done to boost the motivation of military personnel and security sector employees, and to address the shortage of army personnel and the projects for the upgrade of the Armed Forces." Radev said that the next Consultative Council meetings will be on corruption, judicial reform, crime and poverty.

The President urged the intuitions to respect their own decisions so as not to lose the trust of the people.

"I think that people's anger is just but in no way should it be used for political purposes because it can easily spark ethnic tensions, which is extremely dangerous," said Radev in the wake of anti-Roma protests in Assenovgrad, Byala and Smolyan. "As short-term measures, the law enforcement bodies should quickly defuse the situation and prevent further provocations. In the long-term real steps should be taken towards social inclusion, education and effective social policies," said Radev.