site.btaVazrazhdane Calls for New Debt-Free Budget, Opposes Extended 2025 Budget

A new budget should be proposed without any planned debt, because debt serves only one purpose – to mask the huge deficit in the budget, Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov told journalists after his meeting with President Rumen Radev here on Tuesday as part of the consultations held before the head of State starts handing the government-forming mandates.

According to Kostadinov, the deficit is enormous to meet the criteria for eurozone entry. “To compensate for inflated spending, there must also be inflated revenues,” he said. “But they will not do that; they will prefer to throw the country into chaos. The solution is for the government to produce a budget without a 3% deficit, reduce spending, and avoid taking any loans next year. This can be achieved by cutting the number of ministries from 19 to 10 next year,” he said.

“The constructive step the government should take, whether caretaker or regular, is to propose measures to eliminate the deficit and cut spending,” Kostadinov said. “That is the sensible move. However, it will not be done because the current government will ‘play games with us Bulgarians’ and push the country into major chaos. That is why we insist Bulgaria should not join the eurozone,” he added.

Vazrazhdane opposes the so-called extended budget because it is drafted in levs and because the party voted against the 2025 budget itself. “We do not want the state to continue accumulating debt. This budget envisages BGN 19 billion in debt,” Kostadinov said.