The only way out is the removal of the president, economist Krasen Stanchev expressed his opinion to the Bulgarian National Radio. In the program "Before Everyone" he commented on President Rumen Radev's proposal to hold a national referendum with the question "Do you agree that Bulgaria should introduce the single European currency, the euro, in 2026?".
"This act of the president suspends not only the Constitution, but also interrupts the procedure for negotiations with the EC and the ECB and the procedure for issuing a convergence report. By calling for a referendum, he manipulates public opinion. The manipulation of money is multifaceted, it is not only with public opinion. In this game, the president always wins – he is something like a pigeon playing chess. He runs around the field, throws the pieces, does some other things and then flies off and says that he won the party. This is a rather serious act by the president, which should either not be respected by the National Assembly, i.e. not to accept these things, but there is no way, after he has submitted them, not to accept them, or to reject them. But when they are rejected by a decision of the National Assembly, the president will refer them to the Constitutional Court and will stop the procedure again. The situation is not trivial", Stanchev explained. And he agreed with the claims that "this is a gift for Putin" and that "this is sabotage".
According to him, there is no consensus in Bulgarian society on the topic of adopting the euro, because there is no explanation for things.
Krasen Stanchev also reminded what the risks of adopting the euro are. According to him, none of the conditions for membership in the eurozone contradict the interests of Bulgarian citizens.
"When you stop these things from being implemented, which the president wants to do, you are actually giving way to those who want to contradict or degrade the interest and welfare of Bulgarian citizens", he believes. And about the benefits, he pointed out:
"The possibility of manipulating the welfare of Bulgarian citizens through the budget and public finances and redistributing about 2 to 4 billion per year through the prosecutor's office is removed. That's it - nothing special. Everything else works. We have a situation of the so-called. sedentary bandit who takes a small part of the pizza, leaves the others to eat, but takes this part of the pizza constantly. At the moment, it is about transferring rights from one group that eats from the pizza to another group. The president wants another group to come and eat the pizza."
"Manipulating public opinion and believing that a majority will make the right decision is quite stupid," the economist was categorical in an interview for the program "Above All".
There is no war between institutions here, he explained and specified that there is a conscious attempt to sabotage a procedure that has begun:
"There is a pigeon here that benefits from this whole situation. Accordingly, the pigeon must be put in a cage.