Since March, I and my colleagues, as well as other people, have been saying that we are heading towards a superdeficit, that spending is really out of the control of politicians, economic analyst and leader of the "Bulgaria Can" party Kuzman Iliev told the Bulgarian National Radio in a comment on the draft budget for 2026.
"It is an absolute fact that the caravan continues to move. It is not going in a good direction, but towards excessive indebtedness, towards a lack of strategic vision for what is key and how to have sustainable growth," Iliev said.
He drew a parallel with a family that takes out quick loans to look good in front of others":"But every year, every month, quick loans are getting bigger and the interest rates are going up".
The estimates in the Budget are unrealistic, Iliev commented to "Horizont": "Our politicians' behavior resembles that of pickpockets in the subway, who look around like rustlers, blink and don't know what's going on, because they violated all the accountability standards, all the good practices that they should have used to inform the public about where the state is going financially."
By increasing the "dividend" tax, we are "telling the entire investment world that looks at Bulgaria that in Bulgaria, the successful are punished", he is categorical.
Raising social security contributions is the worst option for increasing taxes, the expert said to "Before everyone".
"When the market is so competitive that the battle is very, very fierce for labor, payments cannot be reduced and what follows, of course, is to lay off people, to reduce investments".
Growth is not because of production, but "it is literally just drawing down debt, consumption and thus driving, through state spending, some sense of prosperity".
In order to repay its loans, the state will have to sell off assets, which is why it loses sovereignty.
Iliev noted that thanks to the long grace period before the introduction of the euro, traders were given the opportunity to raise prices in advance. He added that in Bulgaria those close to politics prosper at the expense of ordinary people, but: "When you break the back of the donkey that pulls the cart, it will surely get stuck in the mud".