This date will go down in history. On both our and the European side, everything is done and only the technical details remain. This was said in the program "From the Day" on BNT by political scientist Prof. Svetoslav Malinov in connection with today's admission of Bulgaria to the eurozone.
The entry into the eurozone was preceded by a severe political confrontation between the parties, in which President Rumen Radev also joined. From now on, anti-European positions will not be able to be tied to referendums, and we will have to talk about Bulgaria's exit from the European Union – let's see how many people will follow such an idea.
The question is that there will be no new regular cabinet of anti-European forces after possible new elections. I don't see how it will happen, said Prof. Malinov.
In recent months, we have been left with the impression that Bulgarian society is anti-European. In fact, in the sociological data on trust in the European Union and when asked whether Bulgaria should remain in the European Union, positive answers categorically dominate - about 2/3. Another issue is that there is skepticism towards the introduction of the euro, specifically from January 1, political scientist Dimitar Ganev pointed out.
In this case, this skepticism is largely due to how much prices will rise. Since in the last 5 years we were in a state of political crisis, not a single government before Zhelyazkov's government took a serious step towards entering the eurozone, there was no real information campaign, and that is important, he added.
Today, the ugly lie that we will enter the eurozone with a worse exchange rate than before has also ended. People should not rush to exchange levs, noted Prof. Svetoslav Malinov.
The campaign is late and we need to catch up. There was no way to start a meaningful information campaign without a regular government. If economic indicators were a function of political indicators, we would be worse than Romania, and we are not, for which business in our country deserves congratulations, said the political analyst.
Entering the eurozone was also a political weapon on the part of the ruling party, because after submitting the request for the convergence report, they began to outline their rule with dates - now after July 8, January 1, 2026 follows. This was also used as a weapon against the opposition in the no-confidence vote, commented Dimitar Ganev.
After January 1, there will be several months to make a smooth transition to the euro, and then we enter a campaign for presidential elections. So far, there are no signs of a collapse of the majority, but this does not mean that there cannot be force majeure circumstances that could hinder the government of this government, emphasized Ganev.
Peevski joined the majority, they accepted him and the majority became stronger. The only possible scenario for new elections is for GERB to give up, because, for example, it suffers great negatives or estimates that it will have a higher result in new elections. If GERB wants this majority to continue, I do not see who will stop it, said Prof. Svetoslav Malinov.