There is a crisis and collapse in the institutions, the administration is not working, the economy is affected, relations in society are tense, irresponsibility and lack of control reign. It is extremely necessary to have a regular government after so many experiments and failures over the past four years.
This was what former Deputy Prime Minister and long-time Ambassador of Bulgaria to Germany Meglena Plugchieva told FOCUS.
She expressed hope that common sense among the negotiating political forces will prevail and a cabinet will be formed, even if it is a minority one.
Political instability leads to a crisis in all sectors of the country's socio-political and economic life.
"First of all, this affects the economy and this is evident from the lack of investments in the last year. Our IT sector, which was leading in Europe, is seriously lagging behind because it lacks personnel. Over 50% of secondary school students do not graduate with diplomas and there are no personnel for this high-tech sector. Our bureaucracy is heavy and combined with corruption“, Meglena Plugchieva listed.
Bulgaria's trade relations with Germany are extremely important for the country's economy. Trade between the two countries in 2019 was 8.5 billion euros, and in 2023 it will be 5.7 billion, Plugchieva pointed out. "If Germany loses, lags behind and is in recession, the effect for Bulgaria is the same. We lose investors and everything is arranged in a very unpleasant domino chain, because we are connected vessels", Plugchieva explained.
The long-time ambassador of Bulgaria to Germany also commented on the crisis in Germany. It began with the rule of Angela Merkel, noted Meglena Plugchieva. This is a period that analysts in Germany assess as a quiet period without reforms, without dynamics and lagging behind the processes taking place in the world. The three years of war in Ukraine have been a catalyst for the already accumulated problems.
"The crisis is not only political, but first and foremost economic. This is mainly due to the increased prices of energy sources, the interruption of political and economic relations with Russia and the cessation of cheap raw materials for the German economy. This was a very strong blow. The government of Olaf Scholz also made many wrong decisions. At the peak of the crisis in April 2023, they permanently closed nuclear power plants and it was expected that only renewable energy sources could be used. Additional factors are the heavy bureaucracy that is dragging down the German economy, the lack of labor, unemployment, the lack of investment in the German economy, the lag in the development of new technologies,“, the diplomat listed.
Germany's liberal social policy towards migrants is a significant factor in deepening the crisis, she added.
"Due to the language, bureaucracy, mentality, migrants cannot be integrated into the labor market. In this way, they burden social systems and empty the income from the economy. The benefits they receive are very high and they have no incentive to join the labor market“, explained Plugchieva.
A main priority for the government of Olaf Scholz was the care of migrants and aid to Ukraine, which amounts to between 28 and 34 billion euros.“The Scholz government put the interests of its own citizens and its own economy far behind the interests of migrants and Ukraine“, pointed out Meglena Plugchieva.