President Rumen Radev's proposal to hold a national referendum on the introduction of the euro will enter the parliamentary hall after the Speaker of the National Assembly Raya Nazaryan "unfrozen" the procedure.
The head of state's request was submitted on May 12, but it was not until November 28 that Nazaryan distributed it to four committees - legal, for direct participation of citizens, on budget and finance, and on European affairs - in order to prepare it for a vote in the plenary hall, writes Dir.bg.
This is happening after the decision of the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the previous Speaker of the Parliament Natalia Kiselova violated the Constitution by arbitrarily refusing to submit the president's proposal to a vote. According to the Constitutional Court, she did not have the right to make a decision instead of the deputies.
Nevertheless, Kiselova stated that she would repeat her actions, arguing with the “Euro-Atlantic path of the country“. After the Constitutional Court decision, GERB insisted that Radev should submit the documents again, since Kiselova had returned them. Radev refuted this thesis, stating that the documents never left the registry office, and even offered to give the incoming number if the government “cannot find it“.
The parliament must decide whether to allow a referendum with the question:
“Do you agree that Bulgaria should introduce the euro in 2026?“
Despite the renewed procedure, the chance of the referendum being approved is minimal. The ruling majority around the “Zhelyazkov“ cabinet has 131 votes, which is enough to reject the proposal. PP–DB, which support Bulgaria's accelerated entry into the eurozone, will also vote against scheduling a referendum, even if MRF–NN do not provide support this time.
An additional argument against holding a referendum is the time - according to lawyers, even if the referendum is approved, it cannot be held before January 1, when the euro must be introduced anyway. Vice President Iliana Yotova stated that “time has run out“, but the parliament is obliged to bring the procedure to the end, as required by the Constitutional Court's decision.