site.btaData on State Budget Are Extremely Worrying - MP Ademov of Alliance for Rights and Freedoms

Talking to journalists in Parliament's lobby on Wednesday, MP Hasan Ademov of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) said the data on the State Budget are extremely worrying. He was taking a question about a possible "hole" in  the budget. 

"Even when the 2025 State Budget Act was adopted, it was clear that revenues were extremely tight, and now I am surprised that they cannot be met, especially in the VAT section. A budget deficit means a violation of EU law. You know that a deficit of 3% and above means debt, because every deficit means an external loan," Ademov noted.

He said that the International Monetary Fund's proposal is to raise taxes, but it is clear from the public statements of institutions in Bulgaria and politicians that this remains only a proposal and is not being accepted. "We were more in favour of rationalising expenditure, whatever that means. For example, automatic mechanisms for increasing salaries in the budgetary sphere. This is one of the big problems, which for next year onwards implies a minimum of BGN 4 billion just for an automatic increase in salaries in the public sector," he argued.

Asked whether they would support the motion of no confidence in the Government proposed by Vazrazhdane, Ademov said that the ARF would make a decision once they had acquainted themselves with the reasoning.

Asked whether the Executive Agency for Road Administration should be closed down, the MP said that if closing this institution would solve the problems with corruption in this sector and in the country in general, the ARF would agree. "However, this proposal seems to me more like the refrain ‘no person, no institution, no problem'," Ademov commented.

The ARF told a news briefing on Wednesday that the parliamentary group had submitted two bills to the National Assembly. One is a bill amending and supplementing the Civil Registration Act, which concerns nearly 1 million Bulgarian citizens with Turkish-Arabic names who were forcibly renamed during the totalitarian regime. The ARF proposes that the forcibly imposed names be deleted from the state registers. Sevim Ali from the ARF announced that Bulgarian citizens who fall under this category are often required to report their forcibly imposed names when applying for certain administrative services, as well as to submit a declaration of identity of names. In this way, these people are further humiliated, Ali said.

The ARF have proposed that deceased Bulgarian citizens who fall under the same hypothesis and were forcibly renamed, should get their names officially restored and the forcibly imposed names, deleted from the registers. "For us, forced renaming is not just an administrative act, it is an attack on human dignity. With the proposed bill, we aim, albeit belatedly, to restore justice," said Ali. He recalled that a similar bill had been proposed many times in the plenary hall, but had not received support. This time, the ARF hope to receive support from all parliamentary groups.