MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier this year, Bulgaria was overwhelmed with thousands of mostly Syrian refugees fleeing the four-year conflict through Turkey.
"We call Bulgaria sovereign even though we gave it to Brussels in 2007, but I think we have to protect our borders, while the neo-liberal and neo-colonial government of Borissov does not do that and that is why it should resign," Siderov stressed.
An opinion poll, conducted by the UK-based Populus research and strategy consultancy exclusively for Sputnik and published earlier on Tuesday, found that 62 percent of Bulgarians opposed the government’s plan to accept refugees under the obligatory Brussels quota scheme for distributing immigrants.
"This is a big problem for us because our economy is weak and each migrant costs over 100 euros [$110.7] per month," the politician said, adding that this equaled the average monthly payment to Bulgarian pensioners.
Alongside Greece, Bulgaria has been a key transit country for Middle Eastern refugees, most of whom prefer the safer Balkan route to the perilous voyage across the Mediterranean.
Bulgaria has signed up to the European Commission’s plan to resettle 160,000 refugees to take the burden off Greece and Italy.
On October 24, Borisov said the country was prepared to close its borders to refugees if Germany and Austria did the same, which would increase the pressure on Bulgaria. The prime minister stressed he would not let his country become a buffer zone for millions of migrants.
