The tax and social security system needs to be changed. This was said to the Bulgarian National Radio by the chief economist of the Podkrepa Confederation Atanas Katsarchev in response to a question about where the money needed for a better and adequate social policy would come from.
"Talks about this should start this year. ... The point of state policy is to have a sustainable policy, not one-off solutions".
Surveys are being initiated among union members, he pointed out and specified:
"If our demands for a wage increase are not approved and things continue to lead to a deterioration in the standard of workers, there is only one legal option - protests. The point is not to lead to blockades and national strikes, because too many sectors are affected. The fact that people are silent does not mean that they are satisfied with what is happening. ... Tax and social security injustice must be corrected, there is no way to fill the holes in the budgets of the National Social Security Institute and the National Health Insurance Fund".
According to him, the policy pursued in recent years has yielded negative results and is not working, so "another solution must be found".
"Workers will go on strike if this misery with wages continues", said Katsarchev, stating that rushing to join the eurozone, without it being clear what is happening at the moment, is risky:
"I think that at the moment we are not fulfilling the parameters for entry, entering the eurozone would rather be a political decision".
Katsarchev emphasized that from the "Podkrepa" appeal to begin talks this week on the three major budgets for this year in the committees of the National Tripartite Council (NTCC), "because the time we have and the deadline given by the Prime Minister are too short":
"Given that the extension law expires on January 31st, and if some agreement is not reached by then, things could get even worse for everyone in the country".