site.btaContinue the Change Chair: 2026 State Budget within 3% Deficit Realistic Given Current Growth in Revenues

It is realistic for Bulgaria to have a 2026 state budget within a 3% deficit, especially given the current growth in Treasury revenues, Continue the Change (CC) Chair Assen Vassilev told journalists in the corridors of Parliament on Friday regarding the deficit of over 3% for last year, announced by Prime Minister Rumen Radev.

Commenting on the news that the European Commission (EC) will launch an excessive deficit procedure against Bulgaria, Vassilev recalled that as early as February he had said that "with the revenues projected in this way, the 3% deficit target certainly would not be met - the budget was designed to prevent us from entering the eurozone and to bring down the Government." He pointed out that the EC is reacting to facts that have already occurred.

The way out of this situation is not taking on debt, but adopting this year's budget with realistic parameters and a 3% deficit, the CC Chair said. "Accordingly, the procedure will be terminated and there will be no consequences for Bulgaria. Realistic spending must be introduced and salaries in the public sector should not be increased by 50-60%, as was done with Budget 2025," he added.

Asked whether Bulgaria had entered the eurozone through deception, Vassilev replied: "No, the eurozone report examines the deficit for 2024, since that is already a fact. The report was published in June 2025 and there was no way of knowing what the deficit for 2025 would be," he added. "The warnings were made not only by us, and we are now seeing the results of the reckless governance of the Zhelyazkov cabinet and GERB," Vassilev pointed out.

"For a long time we were criticised as being 'incompetent', yet in 2022, 2023 and 2024 the deficit was always within 3% and there were no problems at all. In 2025 the 'competent ones' from GERB, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and There Is Such a People came in and ruined things," Vassilev argued.

Asked how much debt he had taken on during his terms as finance minister, he replied that a total of BGN 16 billion had been borrowed, while GDP growth had amounted to BGN 64 billion. "For every BGN 1 borrowed, there was a BGN 4 increase in the production of goods and services in the country," he added. Vassilev explained that Budget 2025 projected loans of nearly BGN 20 billion, against projected GDP growth of BGN 19 billion.

According to him, there is currently a 20% increase in revenues due to higher inflation and rising consumption. "A budget with a 3% deficit can easily be prepared - the question is how the funds are distributed so that people do not become poorer and businesses are not hit, but that is a matter of political priorities rather than impossibility."

"The other thing we warned about last year is that advance tax collection from banks would not be recognised as revenue for 2025, but for 2026," he added.

Asked why he had supported the extension of the budget, Vassilev pointed out that when there is no budget for 2026, Budget 2025 can continue operating in order to ensure normal payments in the state, but this does not increase expenditure. The so-called budget extension act is currently acting as a brake on increasing spending, he added. "When the budget is published, we will analyse it and hope that our proposals will be heard so that we do not end up in such a situation for a second time," the MP said.