MPs Back Presidential Veto on the Forestry Act Amendments
Parliament supported the presidential veto on the Forestry Act amendments as the lawmakers decided that the bill should not be put to the vote again before public consensus is reached on the controversial texts of the law.
Five MPs - one from the ruling centre-right party GERB and four independents - voted in favour of the Forestry Act amendments, parliament said in a statement published on its website on Wednesday.
Thirty-eight MPs from socialist Coalition for Bulgaria, Movements for Rights and Freedoms, the Blue Coalition and nationalist party Ataka were against, while 84 deputies from GERB abstained.
The legislative changes, which prompted a series of protests, allow construction of ski runs, ski tows and other facilities on forestry stock areas without a change in the designated purpose of the area, thus, according to environmentalists, making it possible for these areas to appear as forests only on paper.