Covid-19: Row in Bulgaria’s Parliament over wearing masks
The beginning of the weekly sitting of Bulgaria’s National Assembly on July 1 began with a row about some MPs failing to comply with the Health Minister’s order to wear protective masks against the spread of Covid-19, Bulgarian National Radio reported.
Opening the sitting, Speaker Tsveta Karayancheva said that those who were not wearing masks should ask for them from the quaestors.
Additional quantities of masks had been provided, she said.
United Patriots MP Slavcho Atanassov said that two MPs, Alexander Paunov of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Pavel Shopov of Ataka, were again – as had been the case for several sittings – not wearing masks.
“Do they think it is pleasant for us to wear masks? The order of the Minister of Health is being violated here, please take steps against these colleagues,” he told Karayancheva.
BSP MP Georgi Svilenski objected to such reminders, saying that this was the business of the regional health inspectorate.
Paunov also objected, saying that Parliament is not a public place because access to it was subject to a control system.
Karayancheva said that MPs, like all Bulgarian citizens, had to comply with the law. She said that she would refer those not wearing masks to the regional health inspectorate.
On June 23, the first day that the order to wear masks in indoor public places was revived, Bulgarian Prime Minister and members of his entourage and the media who entered a church at Rila Monastery without wearing masks were fined 300 leva each for breaching the Health Minister’s order.
For the rest of The Sofia Globe’s continuing coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria, please click here.
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