site.btaPresident Radev Describes 2026 Draft Budget as "Warning for What Awaits Us in Euro Area, Which We Are Entering Prematurely"

Commenting on the 2026 draft budget here on Saturday, President Rumen Radev said that it is "a warning of what awaits us in the euro area, which we are entering prematurely and under an essentially anti-European government." Radev was speaking to the media in Botevgrad, where he attended celebrations marking the town's holiday. 

Radev noted that the withdrawal of the draft budget is a victory for the people. "Let’s not fool ourselves: as long as the treasury remains in the hands of the Magnitsky coalition, our money will end up in the pockets of their bosses and be spent on private Falcon [jets]; businesses will continue to be pressured, and young people will be forced to seek work abroad," the President said.

By "Magnitsky coalition", Radev apparently means two parties represented in Bulgaria's legislature: the cabinet-forming-mandate-holder GERB and the government-backing MRF-New Beginning, as former GERB finance minister Vladislav Goranov and MRF-New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski were designated by the United States under the Global Magnitsky Act in 2021 for alleged corruption.

"I welcome all those who are raising their voices and reminding the sociopaths and thugs in parliament that Bulgaria is - and will remain - a democracy," President Radev said.

The head of State also criticized MPs who hide from voters "behind the walls of Parliament," calling them "unworthy of representing the Bulgarian people."

"As [poet and politician] Petko Slaveykov put it, anything that is done for the people without the people is not righteous; it is not legal," Radev said.