The hearing of the resigned Foreign Minister Teodora Gencovska in parliament on the process of North Macedonia's accession to the EU and the decision-making to approve a negotiating framework has escalated into a scandal. For more than three hours, the deputies have been debating whether the procedure should be only in open session or in a closed one. From Genchovska's brief presentation, apart from the documents with qualified information, it became clear that a parallel foreign policy has been pursued in our country regarding the topic of the veto for the EU membership of North Macedonia.

After the deputies initially decided to hold Genchovska's hearing in closed session, half an hour later it became clear that the procedure would be in open session. It was announced by the chairman of the General Assembly of “We Continue the Change” Andrey Gyurov:

"The proposal was for this hearing to be held behind closed doors. It was not supported by the House. Let all citizens and people who are interested in the subject of North Macedonia hear what the Foreign Ministry has to say."

From Genchovska's speech it became clear that a parallel foreign policy has been pursued in our country on the subject of the veto for the EU membership of North Macedonia:

"Since I took over the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, during my first meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RNM, my first sentence was to him: Mr. Minister (Kovachevski), communicate only with me! Unfortunately, this did not happen. The prime minister (Petkov)'s foreign policy adviser sent a draft update of the framework position. However, its content rather suggests a revision of the Bulgarian national position. This new framework project position does not include the Bulgarian position on the so-called Macedonian language. The requirement for European guarantees regarding the implementation of the 2017 agreement is becoming untenable."

GERB: The majority wants no one in Bulgaria to find out what agreements Kiril Petkov made

What is happening in the plenary hall is "political schizophrenia", said the chairman of the GERB parliamentary group Desislava Atanasova. According to her, WCC and BSP are trying to fail the hearing of the foreign minister with procedural tricks. Atanasova insisted that journalists have access to the debate in the hall, as she said the vote had not been closed:

"Minister Genchovska stated that she would read documents with a stamp. At the moment, the majority is trying to obscure public and media attention, so that no one in Bulgaria understands what agreements Kiril Petkov has made. This is what the majority is trying to do –to prevent looking further into this point at all. We Continue the Change and the Bulgarian Socialist Party are mainly doing this. This is political schizophrenia."

Today, the Speaker of the National Assembly Nikola Minchev announced that the five deputies who left “There Is Such a Peope” - Nikolay Radulov, Georgi Georgiev, Svetlin Stoyanov, Deyan Petkov and Ivo Atanasov are officially independent deputies. This also terminates their membership in the standing parliamentary committees ahead of schedule.

At the beginning of the plenary day, GERB's proposal to hear the Ministers of Defense and Interior Dragomir Zakov and Boyko Rashkov on the plane that violated Bulgarian airspace on June 8 was accepted. The procedure will be the first point for Friday.

The majority rejected GERB's request, supported by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), to include in the weekly program, as a second item, the BSP bill on changes to the Electoral Code, which provides for Bulgarian citizens to be able to vote with paper ballots and not only with machines in all sections. Desislava Atanasova from GERB stressed that this is a timely discussion, and DPS leader Mustafa Karadayi said that "there will be elections anyway and this bill is very important."

The Speaker of the National Assembly Nikola Minchev did not submit the request for a vote, arguing that the bill has not been discussed in the Legal Committee and no report has been prepared.

The chairman of the BSP parliamentary group, Georgi Svilenski, demanded that the item not be included and stressed:

"Mrs. Atanasova, stop creating intrigues in the coalition."

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