Bulgarian Nationalists Call for Extension of Ban on Land Sale to Foreigners
Bulgaria's nationalist party Ataka will submit a proposal to extend the ban on sale of agricultural land to foreign nationals until 2020. According to Bulgaria's EU Accession Treaty, the ban is expected to be lifted at the beginning of 2014.
Speaking to journalists in Parliament, Ataka leader Volen Siderov suggested that agricultural land in Bulgaria was nearly 10 times cheaper than in the rest of Europe.
To illustrate his point, he said that the average price per decare of agricultural land in Bulgaria was EUR 220, compared to EUR 2930 in the Netherlands and EUR 1430 in Italy.
"Many people will say: the foreigners are not going to bring this land home. True, but this land will become private inviolable territory and Bulgaria will not be able to plan its agriculture", Siderov said. He warned that there was great appetite for Bulgaria's agricultural land and some of it had already been sold, with buyers awaiting 2014 simply to legalize the deals.
He voiced hopes that Bulgarians' incomes would at least grow similar to the EU average by 2020.
Siderov went on argue that the Bulgaria's agricultural land was valued at around EUR 8B at current prices, while Facebook's profit for 2013 stood at EUR 100B, "which means that a large multinational company can buy out half of Bulgaria overnight and we would wake up as foreigners in our own country", he exclaimed.
The nationalist leader refused to comment on the idea of opposition center-right party GERB to call a vote of no-confidence, stressing that the party chaired by former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had changed its stance on the matter too many times and the motives had not been stated conclusively.
Source: http://www.novinite.com