Prime minister Rumen Radev told parliament that high prices are the fault of the opposition party "We Continue the Change," accusing it of campaigning for the euro. He was answering a question from PP lawmaker Venko Sabrutev on prices and inflation.

"That's why prices are like this. They're high because of you," Radev said. He claimed PP had pushed for the euro, sworn to it on TV, and told people prices would not rise — and might even fall.

Radev denied the government had ever promised food prices would drop by 15%. He said retail chains, not the government, had announced that figure for certain products. The government's goal, he said, is to slow the rate of increase and stop prices climbing further. He added that it was wrong to score political points off such claims.

He said PP did nothing to stop prices rising sharply after the convergence report came out, even though Croatia's experience had been raised as a warning again and again.

"The fight against the oligarchy is hard enough, but fighting stupidity and naivety in your shape is harder," Radev said. He said the oligarchy works through front men, and the government is working methodically against those people and the firms tied to them.

Radev asked PP where the "golden rain of investment" it had promised had gone. He said his government does not arrest political leaders just to "launder" them later, and does not shield anyone's immunity.

Sabrutev criticized the government over the new method for setting the minimum wage, adopted last week. He said the method, backed by the ruling majority's MPs, will cut the minimum wage by up to 73 euros. The old rules, passed by earlier parliaments, were fair, he said, because they made sure wages rose faster than inflation.

A lower minimum wage hits the most vulnerable hardest, Sabrutev said. He added that the government's "basket of care" program had turned out to be a basket of lies with no care in it. The ruling parties, he said, had lied to people about cutting prices in shops, and the "fight against the oligarchy" promised during the campaign had turned into a fight against ordinary working people.

Sabrutev recalled comments made a few days earlier by finance minister Galab Donev, who said the eurozone was not behind the higher prices. He asked the prime minister whether he was lying, or whether Donev simply didn't know what he was talking about.