No opposition party will vote for the 2027 draft budget in the full house. GERB, DPS, Democratic Bulgaria, We Continue the Change and Vazrazhdane said the budget will make people poorer because of high inflation.
On Tuesday, Democratic Bulgaria MPs Martin Dimitrov and Vladislav Panev told reporters in parliament that the ruling parties do not plan to cut the deficit below 3%. The budget committee was then holding an extraordinary sitting on changes to the Public Finance Act.
More on this story: DB says ruling parties do not plan to cut deficit below 3%
The opposition says the draft has no steps to fight rising prices or to help business. Money for investment has been cut and the state will not be able to grow, the parties say.
Temenuzhka Petkova of GERB said that when the budget was presented, the party heard a forecast of 4% inflation. She said inflation will be high again next year, and the draft plans new debt of 8.006 billion euros. GERB believes the hole in the budget will be filled with inflation, which hits the pocket of every household. She called it a hidden tax, the easiest to collect, which fills the treasury.
Petkova called the budget unwise and said it will not solve the problems of society. She also criticised the rise in the maximum insurable income and the tax on windfall profits.
DPS says the draft has no steps to bring prices under control and that people are set to get poorer. "This draft budget is a heavy truck without brakes, racing towards the cliff," said Stanislav Anastasov. He described the items on the space industry and AI gigafactories as wishes that make sense only when looking 50 years ahead. People are asking how they will pay their bills next month, Anastasov added.
Ivaylo Mirchev of Democratic Bulgaria called the draft a "budget of broken hopes". The ruling parties promised sound finances but presented a large debt, he said. By his estimate, the debt is 9 billion euros and the real deficit is 4.2%, not the 3.5% presented. "This is the budget of the terrible slide, it is a worse budget than the budget of Zhan Videnov," Mirchev said.
We Continue the Change said the capital programme has been cut from 6 billion euros to...
Correction — the final text should read as follows for the last two paragraphs:We Continue the Change said the capital programme has been cut from 10 billion to 6 billion euros. With such a programme, the state will have no "petrol in the engine" for growth, the party says. PP says there is no anti-crisis package for industry despite high energy prices, and that incomes will grow more slowly than inflation.
Tsoncho Ganev of Vazrazhdane said the budget does not promise a better life for Bulgarians. He said the draft offers "more of the same", lasting impoverishment and no fight against inflation and rising prices.