Former economy minister Nikolay Vassilev told bTV the 2026 budget is not actually dead but sitting in limbo while politicians hash out revisions. He said Bulgaria keeps pretending to run 3% deficits but really starts at 5% and ends up hitting 8%, and the country needs to ditch deficit spending entirely and get back to surplus budgets. Vassilev thinks public money gets dumped into pointless projects instead of going where it matters.
He backed employers who bounced from the Tripartite talks and agreed the government should not jack up social security payments or dividend taxes. Vassilev wants massive cuts and reforms across the public sector, and he said politicians could walk out right this second and fire 10,000 state admin workers without breaking a sweat. He also said the state should not drop 2 billion leva on buying a refinery, whether they use cash or assets, because the math works out the same either way.
He backed employers who bounced from the Tripartite talks and agreed the government should not jack up social security payments or dividend taxes. Vassilev wants massive cuts and reforms across the public sector, and he said politicians could walk out right this second and fire 10,000 state admin workers without breaking a sweat. He also said the state should not drop 2 billion leva on buying a refinery, whether they use cash or assets, because the math works out the same either way.
