Rumen Radev also disappointed me with the presentation of his economic program, which is, to put it mildly, far from the left. It was even very symbolic that the guest with whom they ended the presentation of this program was a Spanish businessman. An addition to their economic team is Ivan Vassilev, who was deputy mayor of the Sofia Municipality for finance and healthcare. There we had very serious problems with decisions of the Social Security Administration, which he refused to implement. And if such a type of economist is at the heart of Radev's team, we will have problems with the implementation of the decisions of the government itself. This was said by the independent municipal councilor in the Sofia Municipal Council Vanya Grigorova on the air of “Presechna tochna” on Nova TV.
“There were requests that the problems with increasing prices would be overcome, but such policies cannot be implemented without finances. And when they have been repeating for the second week that they will not change taxes, it should be clear that they may have to, for example, stop paying pensions”, she also commented.
According to her, either there should be a change in the tax and social security system, or more loans should be taken out, “and this is something that the last few governments have been doing”. Grigorova's proposal is to change taxes in order to have finances in the state. She believes that the non-taxable minimum should be returned, wealthier companies and banks should be taxed, and the maximum social security income should be drastically increased.
Grigorova showed Eurostat data, according to which in the graph presenting the average hourly labor cost for 2025, “Bulgaria is at the bottom” -12 euros per hour. The average for the European Union is 34.90 euros. “We are about three times cheaper within the EU for employers. And the prices are not three times lower”, the municipal councilor also emphasized. She was categorical that if the industry is experiencing difficulties, this is not due to the salaries of employees.
On the topic of healthcare, Grigorova explained that municipal hospitals suffer from underfunding, and they take in socially vulnerable, uninsured, homeless patients. According to her, this is why municipalities are supplementing municipal hospitals through additional contracts. "When we don't have a state budget, we don't have a municipal budget and therefore we don't have the right to increase payments. And in this inflation, we can't cover the basic needs of municipal hospitals. Both patients and doctors suffer from this," she added.