site.btaContinue the Change, Other Parliamentary Groups to Challenge 2026 State Budget Act

Continue the Change and other parliamentary groups will challenge before the Constitutional Court the 2026 State Budget Act, leader Assen Vassilev told a briefing in Parliament after President Iliana Iotova announced that she would promulgate the state budget act.

According to Vassilev, Iotova’s decision “reduces the president’s office to the press office of the Bulgarian government, and Iotova herself to the spokesperson of Prime Minister Rumen Radev.”

“This budget contains unconstitutional provisions. We are certain that the Constitutional Court will find these provisions unconstitutional and will suspend them so that they do not harm Bulgarian families and Bulgarian businesses,” Vassilev said.

“This is the constitutionally assigned role of the presidency - to return for reconsideration provisions that are harmful to Bulgarian citizens. Unfortunately, the presidency did not fulfill its constitutional duty. We hope that the Constitutional Court will do so,” Vassilev added.

According to him, this will happen after some of these provisions have already been in effect for several months and have caused damage. “More than EUR 1 billion intended for municipalities will be spent at the discretion of a single person. Every Bulgarian citizen will pay EUR 400 between now and the end of the year; EUR 300 of that amount is unclear how it will be spent because it is not described in the budget. This is the price of inaction and the lack of a veto by Iliana Iotova,” Vassilev said.

According to the MP, this represents a distortion of Rumen Radev’s governing mandate. “He was elected with the hopes of nearly one and a half million Bulgarian citizens that he would end the non-transparent governance carried out by the Zhelyazkov cabinet, that he would present a budget better than the budget that brought down the previous government. Instead, we are seeing behavior that makes things worse,” Assen Vassilev commented, adding that the government is harmful to Bulgaria.

On Tuesday, PP submitted to the president a petition supported by more than 32,000 Bulgarian citizens, calling for a veto on the 2026 State Budget Law. The party stated that it would refer the matter to the Constitutional Court if the law was not returned for further discussion.