site.btaMRF - New Beginning Supports Budget, Everything Requested for People Is There

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski speaking about the 2026 draft budget to journalists in the parliamentary lobby on Thursday, said that the party supports the budget. “Everything we requested for the people is there,” he added. The police and military personnel salary increase has been retained, as well as the planned capital program for municipalities through the Bulgarian Development Bank, he gave as examples.

“I said that I would support this government because of the people. Everything is in there [the budget], everything is happening,” Peevski said.

MP Yordan Tsonev also confirmed that MRF-New Beginning supports the draft budget. “We are not inclined to make concessions,” he said regarding the employers' dissatisfaction. “Over the past few years, they have received BGN 6.5 billion in energy subsidies, and the time has come to tighten these relations regarding the obligations of business to the state,” Tsonev said. According to him, the 2% increase in the social security burden is necessary because of the unbalanced state of the pension system. Tsonev said that at this stage, the party does not support the abolition of the flat tax.

Delyan Peevski also answered a question about the lifting of sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act. According to him, he is appealing the US sanctions, and when they are lifted, those imposed by the UK will also be lifted. Peevski said that he is appealing all sanctions through legal channels.

Delyan Peevski was designated by the United States under the Global Magnitsky Act in 2021 for corruption and influence peddling. He is challenging the designation in a US court, with his lawyers arguing that there is no evidence of wrongdoing. In 2023, the United Kingdom also sanctioned Peevski for his alleged involvement “in attempts to exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society through bribery and the use of his media empire.”

In response to a question about whether anyone helped him get the sanctions lifted, Peevski said: "Everyone in the assemblage [the former ruling coalition of unwilling partners Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and GERB] competed offering to help with the sanctions. I have never asked anyone for anything." He also said that former CC-DB finance minister and CC chair Assen Vassilev, in the presence of GERB leader Boyko Borissov, called Executive Director of the National Revenue Agency Rumen Spetsov to ask about the audits against Peevski. According to Peevski, Vassilev's goal was to make sure that everyone was aware of the fact that all audits had been completed, "because it is very important for us to make it clear that he [Peevski] has no problems."

“There were talks afterwards in my office with [former CC co-chair] Kiril Petkov, Assen Vassilev, and [former DB co-chair] Hristo Ivanov," Peevski said, where he was told: "We really want to work with you, we can't stand Borissov. We want an alliance with you against Borissov." He added that Petkov, Vassilev, and Ivanov told him they had contacts and would arrange for the sanctions to be lifted. According to Peevski, he was supposed to agree to "retire" Borissov. He was told that this had to be done "because we [CC-DB] want to take his electorate." "I kicked them all out, went straight to Borissov and told him," Peevski added.