„The elections are over. The difficult part begins. All of you and we as institutions must meet the expectations of Bulgarian citizens. We would like to hear your priorities and ideas for the state. The budget is not waiting. I do not remember the country having worked with two extended budgets“, commented Iliyana Yotova during the meeting with the representatives of „We continue the change“ Assen Vassilev and Nikolay Denkov.
„Bulgarian citizens gave a clear sign after the protests what we should expect from the authorities. The clear mandate is that the way of governance that Borisov and Peevski imposed must end. We have already submitted a bill for their security. The second bill is for the election of court chiefs. The other big task – management of public finances“, commented Asen Vassilev.
He recalled that one of Rumen Radev's caretaker governments with Finance Minister Rositsa Velkova submitted a budget with a deficit of over 6%.
“With the new budget for 2023, which we submitted, we finished with a 2% deficit. We are currently in a similar situation. The war in Iran is escalating. This will affect inflation. The best protection we have is to make the incomes of the most vulnerable groups grow at a faster rate than inflation“, explained Vassilev and added that a serious review of the administration's pay should be conducted.
“We hope that if we now have proposals for the budget, there will be greater audibility, but this depends on “Progressive Bulgaria“. There are currently over 6.5 billion euros in the fiscal reserve. The minimum needed for the silver fund is 2 billion euros. The government has a buffer of about 4 billion euros. This is shown by the analysis of public finances. This is enough to adopt the budget and not have any problems,“ specified the chairman of “We continue the change“.
Nikolay Denkov added that the other expectation that led to the election of “Progressive Bulgaria“ was that of justice.
“It is not enough to elect the Supreme Judicial Council and the Anti-Corruption Commission. It is important how the procedures for electing members of the Supreme Judicial Council, the Inspectorate of the SJC and the new Anti-Corruption Commission will be approached. It is important that it works so that the bandits are afraid of something in this country“.
According to him, nominations should also be broadcast from the non-governmental sector. “We expect investigations to begin into the networks of influence that were hidden. I am talking about the “Eight Dwarfs“, the Notary and Alexei Petrov. The networks of influence will not disappear automatically“, said Nikolay Denkov.
“In one year, the debts were burdened with an unnecessary 8 billion leva. The debt jumped from 24% to 29% of GDP and there are preparations to reach 35%“, explained Denkov.