For years, business has been proposing to reduce maternity leave, eliminate the second year and have mothers return to work quickly, because there is a "shortage of staff". Forgive me, but this is the bottom of short-sighted thinking! This was published on his Facebook page by the chief economist of the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions, Lyuboslav Kostov, quoted by "Focus".
According to him, in this way the business wants to solve a momentary problem by ruining the long-term future of the nation. "And all this against the backdrop of a demographic catastrophe. Bulgaria is disappearing. But does anyone think that the solution is for the woman to abandon the baby at 6 months and start calculating Excel spreadsheets?"
"Being a parent, especially a mother in the first years of the child, is not a "vacation" or “rest". It is the most responsible and the most unpaid job in the world. "That's where the character of the next generation is forged," he emphasized.
According to the economist, feminism and emancipation, in the name of which women were pushed into the rut of a 24/7 career, played a bad joke on society.
"They turned the desire for family and children into something secondary, almost retrograde. “Career first, family and children later". Complete nonsense! All this is in the service of absolute, insatiable capitalism and consumerism, which only want us to produce, spend and work until we drop.
A woman should have the opportunity to give birth to children and raise them fully, and not do meaningless things just to "prove" that she is equal. True emancipation is in choice, not in obligation," Kostov added.
"The man is the pillar. His main task, for centuries, has been to provide security and sustenance. In a healthy society, a man should earn enough money (and the state should create conditions for this, not crush incomes) so that his wife can calmly afford to raise their children without thinking about bills.
This is not a return to time. This is a return to nature and the healthy family model that works. The man provides, the woman nurtures. Businesses should stop looking at the mother as a "lacking cadre" and start looking at her as the person who creates their future clients, workers and taxpayers," he also said.
The economist also wrote that here comes the bitterness, that the second year of maternity leave in 2026 will again be 780 leva (398 euros). "Borislav Gutsanov had proposed raising it to 900 leva, but since we don't have a budget, that won't happen. Well, at least the business is happy. There are hardly many mothers who won't return to work with such amounts that the state gives".