site.btaVazrazhdane Leader Calls Proposed Budget "Catastrophic"

“The proposed budget is extremely harmful for Bulgaria, and we will not support it,” Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov told journalists in the parliamentary corridors on Wednesday.

The Finance Ministry published the 2026 State Budget Bill on Monday along with an updated Medium-Term Budget Forecast for the period 2026–2028.

Kostadinov went on to remark: “The budget itself was conceived in sin.” He insisted that it should have been approved by the Council of Ministers by October 21. “It turns out it was submitted at the beginning of November, without public consultation and without any coordination procedure, as is the established practice,” Kostadinov added.

According to him, the draft budget is catastrophic because it envisages taking on at least another BGN 21 billion in debt. He warned that in the next two months the macroeconomic situation can deteriorate further and that, as a small part of the eurozone economy after January 1, Bulgaria will suffer more from such instability. Kostadinov claimed that the country is currently borrowing BGN 52 million a day, and this figure is expected to rise to BGN 60 million per day next year.

Kostadinov also pointed out that the poverty threshold in the European Union is EUR 1,500 (around BGN 3,000), and according to his party’s research, 87% of Bulgarians earn less than that amount monthly.

He criticized Parliament’s refusal to hear Fiscal Council Chair Simeon Dyankov regarding his recent interview, in which Dyankov made “alarming revelations” about the state of the financial system and government actions in recent months concerning Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone. According to Kostadinov, Dyankov’s most troubling statement was that Bulgaria could enter an excessive deficit procedure in 2027.