site.btaPM Comments on Progressive Bulgaria's Proposal to Remove COVID-Related Pension Supplements, Maternity Leave Controversy

Progressive Bulgaria leader and Prime Minister Rumen Radev commented on the opposition’s uproar after the parliamentary group proposed the removal of COVID-related supplements for newly granted pensions. At the Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday, he argued that “not a single euro, not a single cent will be taken away from Bulgarian pensioners.”

The proposal was approved on Tuesday by the temporary parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance during the second reading of amendments to the Act on Collecting Revenues and Incurring Expenditure in 2026 until the Adoption of the 2026 State Budget Act. They were later voted conclusively in plenary on Wednesday.

“Over the past week, we learned that we would be buying missiles for the F-16 for BGN 1 billion, that we would be cutting maternity benefits and reducing pensions,” Radev said. He assured that “none of this is true”. “Pensions will not be reduced; they will be increased under the so-called Swiss rule. There has also been no discussion of reducing maternity benefits,” he added.

The maternity leave controversy was triggered by remarks made by Vladimir Nikolov, one of Progressive Bulgaria's Deputy Floor Leaders, during an interview on bTV on Monday, who was widely reported as saying that the ruling coalition planned reducing paid maternity leave and maternity benefits. "Some of the measures we will propose are aimed at preventing discrimination against women by employers. There are statistics showing that some employers do not hire women of childbearing age, fearing they will have to pay for this extended maternity leave. The first step is to reduce maternity leave, but it can only be reduced when there are enough nurseries available," he said. Later in the day, Progressive Bulgaria MP Konstantin Prodanov argued that Nikolov's words had been misinterpreted and taken out of context.

According to Radev, the previous regular government did indeed submit a request for missiles worth BGN 1 billion, but before leaving office it "emptied the state coffers", meaning that no missiles will be purchased.

As for maternity benefits, there has been no discussion of the issue at all, so it is not on the agenda, the Prime Minister explained.

“Politicians who brought pensioners and thousands of working people to the brink of social catastrophe are today suffering from amnesia and assuming the role of moral guardians,” the Prime Minister said. He announced that, following the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Galab Donev would brief journalists on “the unpleasant reality - the state of the public finances”. A reality that is the result of years of negligence, incompetence, voluntarism, populism and plunder, the Prime Minister added.

He also announced that, starting next week, Ministers would begin presenting information on mismanagement, waste, scandalous public procurement contracts, outrageous spending and shameless salaries paid to the boards of state-owned companies, including loss-making ones. The Prime Minister assured that the Government had already begun “plugging leaks and putting a stop to spending that feeds the oligarchy”.