site.btaTrade Unions Confederation President: Bulgaria Facing Most Difficult Budget in Recent Decades, Sustainability of Government Imperative

The sustainability of the government is more than imperative, especially at a time when Bulgaria is facing the most difficult budget in recent decades, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) President Plamen Dimitrov said here on Friday. He emphasized that this needs to be achieved by those who bear responsibility for governing.

"If there is going to be a cabinet reshuffle, this should happen as soon as possible so that we can move forward. For me, the key question is what will happen to the budget, to the financing of the wage and pension systems, which people expect to hear," he pointed out. "I do not know if this will be for the better - we will see in the end. But if it leads to early elections, this will certainly not be positive," Dimitrov said regarding the political situation, which saw the government skip its regular meeting this week and Parliament being unable to secure quorum.

He warned of a serious deficit in the draft budget for 2026, estimated at around BGN 17-18 billion, and emphasized that they will not allow funds from pensions and salaries to be cut. "On the contrary, there must be growth there. Therefore, more tax revenues will be needed. How will they be collected, this is the question we are asking", he stressed. "If someone manages to do it without changing tax rates, it will be the best. But I am skeptical, as we are talking about huge resources that simply do not exist," Dimitrov added.

He expressed approval of the work of the Consumer Protection Commission, stressing that it was high time for state institutions to show they exist. "I expect the next move of the Commission for Protection of Competition regarding the announced data, namely that the markups of chains reach between 50% and 90% from the delivery to the final price in stores. This is not malicious information, as some claim. I expect sanctions because such behaviour is not market-based," he commented.

Regarding the introduction of the euro, Dimitrov expressed optimism that Bulgarians will all benefit from this process. “The euro enhances transparency in the financial sector and creates prerequisites for more efficient resource management. For us as unions, it is important that this will accelerate income growth, as the experience of the Baltic states and Croatia has shown," he said, adding that inflation may also rise, but this is an inevitable process.

"The real problem is that incomes grow much more slowly than prices. Therefore, there is no alternative to increasing them,” Dimitrov stressed, stating that CITUB will continue to insist on accelerated income growth. “When we have a 20% point difference between wage growth and food price growth, it is obvious that over the next five years at least incomes must grow at double-digit rates to get closer to prices in stores,” he pointed out.