People and businesses have lost more than 100m euros a month over the past two to three months because of high fuel prices, GERB leader Boyko Borisov said at the party's headquarters.
By his calculation, the loss is 30%, measured against consumption of about 3bn litres of fuel. Borisov tied the figure to the burden high prices place on households and firms. He also said certain circles are getting rich at consumers' expense.
GERB tried to table a measure to ease the price rise by cutting the excise duty. It never reached a debate in the plenary hall. Borisov said it was blocked and MPs had no chance to discuss it. "Tricks with back-to-back breaks were used," the GERB leader said.
Borisov also spoke about fuel in connection with the draft 2027 budget, which finance minister Galab Donev presented at the University of National and World Economy (UNWE).
GERB-SDS MP Georg Georgiev said the budget was promised to be different, bold and far-sighted, but in practice only deepens the crises. He said Donev presented it timidly. Georgiev said the deficit is 4.2% and rising, inflation is climbing, and the government's actions will make people poorer.
He accused the ruling parties of trying to pin the 2026 budget figures on the previous government, but said the numbers show otherwise. Georgiev also called it worrying that the government is trying to hide the truth about public finances, including through the so-called audit reports of the National Audit Office.
He said state debt, the tax burden, social security contributions and the maximum insurable income ceiling are all rising, and the state is squeezing businesses and taxpayers to the limit. Everyone carries a double burden, the MP said. One comes from the so-called "inflation" tax, the other from a lack of care for incomes. People will pay for the deficit and the growing debt, he said.
Georgiev said GERB's anti-inflation measures, including ones for lower fuel and electricity prices, get no support from the ruling parties.
The MP also raised talks with the European Commission on a possible transfer of money from the second to the first pension pillar. He said the government should have said openly that the idea was discussed at expert level and rejected as bad. Instead, he said, the ruling parties give evasive answers.
He added that the government is bogged down in its own lies. "Sooner or later the truck will end up in the ravine. The problem is that we are on this truck too, figuratively speaking," Georgiev said.
The state is all of us, as people and taxpayers, and the direction is down, the GERB-SDS MP said.