The Ministry of Defense's 2026 budget for salaries is 60 million higher than the 2025 budget. We all saw what the budget of the “Zhelyazkov“ cabinet led to, so I wouldn't even want to comment on it. More importantly, our proposals do not include a reduction in the income of any of the military personnel, any of the civilian civil servants, or those under an employment contract. There will be no reduction in salaries. He stated this in an interview with the “24 Chasa“ newspaper Minister of Defense Dimitar Stoyanov.
From Stoyanov's words it also became clear that the salaries of the military are frozen for 2026, but the automatic calculation of salaries must be preserved.
„The fact is that this mechanism attracts people to the Bulgarian Army and for the first time the incompleteness has gone down. We are already talking about 20% incompleteness, not 22-24%. The fact is, however, that this decision was adopted for populist motives, without the necessary financial calculation. Such automaticity was first developed for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and then for the Ministry of Defense. I have even sent a statement in response to the Ministry of Finance that I do not agree with changes to the Law on Defense and Armed Forces to eliminate the automaticity. But the country's financial situation does not allow it at the moment. "That is exactly why I have proposed not to cancel it, but to freeze it for this and next year," commented the Minister of Defense.