Opposition party GERB said it would support the deployment of US tanker aircraft at Bulgaria’s Bezmer Air Base but criticized Prime Minister Rumen Radev over what the party described as contradictory messages regarding the presence of American military aircraft in the country.
Speaking at a party briefing, MP Georg Georgiev said GERB’s position was clear, but questioned whether the parliamentary majority would back the government’s proposal. Prime Minister Radev announced that the United States had requested the deployment of eight tanker planes at the airbase near Yambol for operations in the Middle East, with the government planning to seek approval from parliament.
Georgiev accused the previous “Zhelyazkov” cabinet, which he referred to as the “government of Borissov and Peevski,” of misleading the public over the earlier decision to allow US military aircraft to use Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport. According to him, bypassing parliament in that case was problematic because of the airport’s location near the capital and the specific nature of the facility.
At the same time, Georgiev stressed that the current situation differs from the deployment earlier this year. He explained that the previous authorization was related to NATO exercises, while the latest request concerns a US operation in the Middle East.
