As a citizen of Sofia, I refuse to be a hostage to political struggles.
This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by the former MEP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party Petar Vitanov and added that as a leftist he supports protest actions for decent incomes.
"Behind such a protest there are people who take advantage of the absolutely original demands of the workers, these are politically motivated figures - on both sides. I believe that the ruling majority in the state uses its contacts, including in the unions, to harm the mayor of Sofia. But the mayor is not acting adequately either, to put it mildly, he only gives additional arguments to his political opponents to attack him. Ultimately, the hostages of the political struggles are the people of Sofia.
In the program "12+3", the former MEP from the BSP commented on President Rumen Radev's proposal to hold a referendum on whether Bulgaria should enter the eurozone from January 2026, emphasizing that there was a lack of "a reasonable information campaign that would address people's fears and indicate how possible negative scenarios would be prevented":
"I personally am in favor of completing our integration more quickly, but this does not mean that people do not have their absolutely justified objective fears. For many years, there was a lack of an explanatory campaign that should have been preceded by economic analyses of potential negative consequences and for the state to indicate the measures with which to combat these consequences, so that people's fears could be dispelled. There was no such campaign".
According to Vitanov, the BSP leadership, which did not support the referendum proposal, must explain to the party's voters, because "this is an inconsistent position, since the BSP was in favor of entering the eurozone when the average income per capita reaches the European average, and we are still 60% of it".
"This change is not bad, but this behavior is not consistent and this sharp turn cannot please the sympathizers without an explanation. That is why they have a hard time accepting the BSP's position".
According to Petar Vitanov, the benefits of introducing the euro must be well explained to the people:
"It is better for our country to be in the innermost circle of decision-makers. Because we have to some extent consumed the negative of being in a currency board, it would be good to get the positive when we enter the eurozone".