Row over 2027 budget: Vassilev accuses government of hiding it – cabinet hits back
PP leader Asen Vassilev says the government is keeping the budget under wraps until after the vote. The Council of Ministers insists announced increases for families and pensioners will stay.
Archive image · Photo: Europäische Kommission – Audiovisueller Dienst, Anton Krastev / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The draft of Bulgaria's first budget drawn up in euros has triggered a sharp row ahead of the runoff. Prime Minister Rumen Radev told reporters in parliament on Wednesday, according to BTA: "We have a few contentious issues that we are currently clearing up, and I don't want to rush." The government wants to keep all planned social benefits, and taxes and social contributions will not rise, he said. The budget must also be agreed with the European Commission.
We Continue the Change (PP) leader and former finance minister Asen Vassilev accused the government of hiding the budget so voters would not see the burden coming. "If it were that good, they should show it and win the elections," he said, according to BTA. According to him, the figures sent to Brussels show tax revenue rising by 2 billion euros; the deficit, he said, would be well above 3%. He called it a "budget of impoverishment."
The Council of Ministers' press office rejected the accusations in the afternoon. The increases Radev announced on Oct. 14 for families and children, mothers, pupils, students and pensioners, as well as for incomes and businesses, would be neither scrapped nor cut – despite an "inherited" excessive deficit. The government accused party leaders responsible for the state of public finances of systematically manipulating the public for electoral purposes.