Right Union “Blue Bulgaria“ spread its position regarding the new measures of the government:
Socialism 2.0: With the new measures, the government increases inflation and kills the market economy and private business. The result will be reduced supply, poor quality and dissatisfied and impoverished Bulgarian citizens.
On October 9, 2002, Bulgaria received a key recognition from the European Commission, which in its annual report defined it as a functioning market economy. This act is considered fundamental for the country's subsequent path to membership in the European Union.
Blue Bulgaria warns that the successes achieved are threatened by current political decisions. In our opinion, the strategists of the Kremlin's hybrid war aim to undermine precisely this foundation, which will lead to irreversible consequences for democracy and the state structure of the country.
Populism in action, economy in retreat Bulgaria is entering a dangerous phase of economic replacement: in the form of “care“ and “stability“ policies are being promoted that undermine the foundations of the market economy. The rulers of the last five years have replaced reforms with indexation, predictability with budget chaos, and free initiative with state intervention. The result: the economy is in retreat, investors are refraining from implementing new projects, and the budget looks more like a short-term election program than a financial development plan.
Cap indexations, deficits on schedule
Instead of using the period of growing incomes and controlled inflation to implement reforms, the government applied the easiest and most dangerous approach: cap indexations. Pensions increased according to the formula inflation + 50% of income growth, with no connection to the real sustainability of the system.
Administrative salaries were mechanically tied to the minimum wage, without regard to efficiency, workload or budgetary capabilities. The result is a sharp increase in current expenses. Any new income is now “eaten“ by pensions and salaries. There is nothing left for investments, debt or modernization. This is how resources are redistributed from the future to the present at the expense of all those who work, invest and create value. With this budget policy today, we are irresponsibly squandering the well-being of our children and grandchildren.
Financial panic disguised as a “tool“
Rising spending has led to a fiscal deficit of 3.28 billion leva, although the economy is not yet in recession. Instead of reducing spending, the government has chosen a one-time early payment of corporate tax by banks for two years ahead – a measure that depletes resources for 2026 to cover the shortfall in 2025. This is not an innovation. This is an admission of fiscal failure.
At the same time, interest expenses on the debt have already doubled in two years – from 318 million leva. up to 683 million leva. Thus, the price of populism begins to be measured not in percentage approval, but in millions of leva of lost opportunities.
From regulations to restrictions
Meanwhile, the state is tightening its grip on the market: a ceiling on markups, new regulations, and the creation of state-owned stores. This is a clear signal: the government treats the market as an enemy. The administrative burden is growing, profitability is falling, and investment incentives are melting away. An economy is being created in which more and more businesses choose not to grow in order to survive.
The planned over 1,500 state-owned stores will create unfair competition for thousands of private retail outlets, especially in smaller settlements. We remember the empty shelves of socialist stores and see today's monopoly and cartel outrages with drug prices and the feudalization of entire communities and settlements through control over access to basic goods.
Blue Bulgaria warns that turning this anti-market practice into state policy will lead to:
● Mass bankruptcies of private enterprises
● Food shortages
● Deepening corruption
● Creating an instrument for blackmailing the population and controlled voting
Planned economy with a democratic facade
Price control, centralized trade, fiscal “handouts“ – all this is reminiscent of a well-known model. This is not social policy. This is socialist planned economy in a new package. This is Socialism 2.0. We know where this path leads: deficits, investment freezes, capital outflows, and finally - an externally imposed correction.
The solution: more market, less state
Strict fiscal rules must be introduced:
- The growth of salaries in the administration should not exceed the growth of gross added value that our economy produced in the previous year.
- Ending state subsidies for business. Turning entrepreneurship into a social program, powered by taxpayers' money, kills the very idea of a market economy.
- Ending subsidizing the prices of kalpak and replacing it with clearly targeted social programs for those truly in need.
- Developing a new three-year financial framework, determining a zero budget deficit at the end of the period.
If Bulgaria does not do this, each subsequent administration will be doomed to invest more and more funds in this socialist matrix, to take on more and more debts and to increase the tax burden on all of us. And when the state takes money from the future to maintain an illusion today, tomorrow's price is not only economic – it is political and moral.
Blue Bulgaria demands that the government immediately end:
● policies of anti-market restrictions in pricing;
● the additional empowerment of state institutions for administrative harassment of small businesses;
● the creation of the state chain of stores;
● all attempts to undermine the market economy through state monopoly.
It is particularly worrying that instead of using existing institutions – such as the Commission for the Protection of Competition – emergency regulations and laws are resorted to. Instead of being a guardian of market rules, the CPC is often used as a political tool that turns a blind eye to cartels and abuses in key sectors such as fuel, banks and telecoms. Thus, the lack of will to implement the law is compensated by noisy but ineffective “measures” that only deepen the problem.
We call for targeted state protection of small and medium-sized businesses, stopping administrative racketeering, effective work of antimonopoly institutions and real action against smuggling.
The market is not the enemy. Business is not a suspicious subject. Free initiative is not a vice, it is the path to wealth and prosperity. The state must return to the role of an arbitrator – not a player in the market. Because when the market breathes, the economy grows. And when everything depends on the budget – freedom is replaced by dependence, and politics – with handouts.