A photograph in the media of Minister of Labour and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov (Bulgarian Socialist Party), MEP Kristian Vigenin (Bulgarian Socialist Party) and former PM Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha attending a conference, organized by the Russian embassy in Sofia, ignited an explosive public debate.

The event was announced as an international scientific conference called “Transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world. Europe-Balkans-Bulgaria”, and was dedicated to the 80^th anniversary of the Yalta conference (4-11 February, 1945), and the 95^th birth anniversary of Russian politician and diplomat Yevgeny Primakov.

“If someone doesn’t know that Borislav Gutsanov is the minister of labour and social policy, they would certainly think he was a special Moscow envoy. Instead of putting his efforts into solving Bulgaria’s social problems, he chose to take part in an international conference, organized by the Russian embassy and by the “Bulgaria-Russia” forum,” Yavor Bozhankov, former MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and current MP from We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria (PP/DB) wrote on Facebook.

Gutsanov’s participation was also criticized by the Minister of Environment from the quota of the Bulgarian Socialist Party-United Left Manol Genov, who stated that Gutsanov owes the party an explanation.