The government of Rumen Radev has no plan for what will happen to the budget if the Constitutional Court declares the change in the formula for the minimum wage unconstitutional. This was stated by the co-chairman of “We continue the change“ Assen Vassilev in an interview with Darik Radio.
“They have no plan. They have no plan for what will happen if the Constitutional Court follows the opinions of everyone to the last one. So there is not a single lawyer who can say: “This complies with the Constitution. That is, the chances of this change to the old formula falling through are, I would say, over 90%. And you need to have a plan and preparation“, Vassilev said. He added that in the event of a possible decision by the Constitutional Court to return the old formula for the minimum wage, a complete rewrite of the budget will be necessary. According to him, the government's time to react is limited, since the budget must be presented to the European Commission by October 15. So all the main parameters of the budget will be clear by then.
Assen Vassilev emphasized that in the current economic situation, a comprehensive anti-crisis package is needed, aimed at citizens' incomes and reducing business costs. “The most important measure is for incomes to grow faster than inflation so as not to impoverish people“, Vassilev said. He pointed out specific measures that, in his opinion, can be taken, as Kiril Petkov's cabinet did in 2022.
One measure is to restore the electricity compensation program for businesses in order to reduce their electricity costs. “Another measure in 2022 that we took was targeted aid to agriculture, related to the price of feed and the price of fertilizers, where rising natural gas prices lead to rising fertilizer prices and currently what we have is the situation with the closed ports of Odessa and Novorossiysk“. He also recalled that in 2022, compensations of 25 cents per liter of gasoline were also given.
According to Assen Vassilev, in the event of a large deficit, the funds should be directed to people and business, not to administrative expenses.
„And the most correct thing was with the budget for 26, which was adopted in July, provided that inflation is set and such a large deficit of 5.7% is made, that it should be directed to this, and that Bulgarian citizens and Bulgarian companies should have higher incomes“, Vassilev also said.
„They pledged some large funds, but they did not pledge them to go to citizens and normal business, but they pledged them to the Council of Ministers with a decree to distribute them and so that the administration would have something to spend“, Vassilev continued.
Assen Vassilev warned, that the economic situation in Europe and internationally will further complicate the situation in Bulgaria.
“Europe is at its lowest gas storage occupancy rate since 22 years. The price of gas is the highest since 22 years, when the war in Ukraine broke out. The price of wheat has risen because both Odessa and Novorossiysk - the export terminals - have been damaged by attacks and cannot be exported well enough. The price of oil is going up, and the German car industry is not only collapsing, but a large part of our exports are tied there.“ This means that we will not have growth in exports and industrial production.
„We have growth in raw materials and looming inflation due to the international situation and the entire plan is frozen in terms of income policy and domestic consumption and next year there will be no injection of European funds that we now have from the plan for recovery and sustainability. That is, investments will fall. This combination creates a serious risk for the economy, which means that they will put us in a stagflation recession“, warned Vassilev.
When asked about the candidacy of Iliyana Yotova for president and Kiril Valchev for vice president, the leader of „We continue the change“ recalled her interview from the previous presidential campaign, in which she explained why Rumen Radev was chosen as the presidential candidate. He read the entire direct quote from Iliana Yotova's interview:
“It is inherited in our country from a long historical tradition that the supreme commander-in-chief of the army must be a man. In 2016, when our presidential couple was being formed, there were serious threats to the country's security, mostly because of the migrant crisis. The expectations were for a strong and decisive person who knows how and can react in such a situation, to be independent and proven. Rumen Radev was a very successful candidate. My profile is in a different direction. Expertise in European policies and social commitments as a left-wing person. We made a good team“.
When asked what kind of president Yotova would be, Vassilev said: “A candidate who kneels while the Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova is right. A candidate who kisses the hand of a KGB agent when he arrives at the Bulgarian airport (Russian Patriarch Kirill). This is not a Bulgarian president, this is humiliation.“
Assen Vassilev also recalled that Yotova did not veto the budget, despite the signatures of 32,000 Bulgarian citizens. “She decided that she would not veto it and de facto literally recited the defense of the budget to the government“. He emphasized that according to numerous external legal opinions, the budget contains unconstitutional provisions.
“And of all the external expert opinions, there is not a single one that supports the thesis of the government and Mrs. Yotova. "All opinions say that either some provisions or the entire budget is unconstitutional. If Ms. Yotova had vetoed and returned the budget, the adoption would have been delayed by a week, but these unconstitutional things could have been removed," Vassilev also said.