Boyko Borisov failed to expel the programmers by telling them to become shepherds, now I hope Toshko Yordanov will not start expelling the doctors by telling them to go work abroad. Absolutely unforgiving attitude. There can be no normal society if we expel our doctors and young specialists. This was said to journalists on the sidelines of the parliament by the chairman of "We continue the change" Assen Vassilev in connection with the statement that caused violent reactions by the deputy chairman of "There are such people" and chairman of the party's parliamentary group Toshko Yordanov, a reporter for Novini.bg reported.
We support the protest of young doctors from its very beginning. We will participate in the round table that is being organized today to hear their proposals and I strongly hope that a cross-party consensus will be found for Bulgarian doctors to be paid decently. And not only doctors - this also concerns nurses, midwives and all other medical specialists. We have been fighting this battle since 2022, when the first framework agreement was made between the Fund and hospitals to reach a minimum wage for nurses, healthcare workers and doctors in Bulgarian hospitals. Unfortunately, what was decided by parliament was not included in the budget. Some 60 million are needed so that our doctors can receive normal salaries and not flee abroad, said Vassilev.
I like working with data. At the end of May 2024, the budget had a surplus of 146 million, this year at the end of May the budget has a deficit of 2.6 billion. Does this seem normal to you? Secondly, the budget includes two payments under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan - for the second and third payments, over 3 billion leva this year alone. At the moment, this payment is not happening because the rules for selecting a new leadership of the Anti-Corruption Commission have not been adopted. We proposed it today in the hall, everyone voted "against", the entire ruling majority rejected this. Until these rules are adopted, we will not receive the funds under the Recovery Plan. These are an additional 3 billion that will not enter the state, plus another 7 billion next year. That is. this is not a problem only for this year, but for next year, the former Minister of Finance pointed out.
It is becoming clear that keeping Anton Slavchev as head of the Anti-Corruption Commission will cost all Bulgarian citizens 10 billion leva. The ruling majority in parliament is blaming its own budget and its own government. Currently, 10 billion leva of Bulgarian citizens are hostages to the reluctance of the majority that supports this government in parliament to remove Anton Slavchev from his seat, emphasized Asen Vassilev.
He also commented on the statement of Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova that for the first five months of this year we have a higher collection rate than during the collection rate for the same period of 2024: "What is very clearly visible in the data is that tax collection is increasing as a percentage of inflation plus the growth of the gross domestic product and a little above that, like all previous years. We told the government that, of course, between 7 and 10% can be expected from the growth of inflation and the growth of the economy, another 3.4 to 5% can be brought in through additional collection measures. Currently, we see that tax revenues are growing by exactly 15%. This is quite natural, the problem is that they bet 30%, which not only we, but even their own experts like Simeon Dyankov told them they could not collect. The problem is that we have a budget with unrealistic tax revenues. The bigger problem for this and next year is that if we do not receive the 10 billion under the Recovery Plan, there is no theoretical chance of implementing the budget and for this it is extremely important to introduce the rules for the Anti-Corruption Commission.
In response to a question about the scandal in the Sofia Municipality, the chairman of "We Continue the Change" said: "What is heard in the recording is that Lena Borislavova's name is used without absolutely any data. It is not a matter of faith, the issue is for the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Prosecutor's Office to do their job, and not to talk about insinuations and suggestions".