In Bulgaria, some believe that the lev is part of the national identity. And the history of the lev, tied to the euro through the currency board, is actually a dark chronicle. Why is there no one to explain this to the scared?
While President Rumen Radev scares Bulgarian citizens with uncontrollable prices because of the eurozone, and BNR is running a paid advertisement for "free protest" in the Triangle of Power on May 31, the campaign for the euro does not go beyond the boring clichés of institutional PR.
10 million leva for a communication campaign
BNR, BNT, bTV and Νοva are the media with which the Ministry of Finance has signed contracts for a total of 3.7 million leva (excluding VAT) for the implementation of the first stage of the communication strategy for the euro. "Alpha Research" is the agency that will research attitudes for 316,660 leva excluding VAT, per year. The Ministry of Finance and the Bulgarian National Bank are also planning detailed explanations and information on the spot in nearly 100 settlements in the country.
But while the largest media in Bulgaria will broadcast advertising videos and audio clips, dozens of podcasts, websites, politicians and influencers are blowing the trumpets of "national treason", "planned financial catastrophe" and "dictation from Brussels".
A total of 10 million leva has been planned for the entire communication campaign. The state is paying for information, but it came too late. Instead of real debates and expert argumentation, which should have begun after the adoption in June 2021 in ΕΡΜ-II, the so-called. "eurozone waiting room", the public receives videos - against the loud propaganda that has overwhelmed social networks, but also mainstream media.
Not one, at least three campaigns are needed!
In this battle, the most important thing is missing - the trust of the people. It cannot be won with political arguments that "the euro is a strategic goal" and "economic stability". At least three different campaigns are needed: for those who are afraid; for those who believe that the lev is part of the national identity; for the Eurosceptics.
Bulgarians who are afraid do not want slogans. The majority of them are not of working age, do not travel, suffer deprivation and limit their spending, this group includes the unemployed, as well as vulnerable communities.
Statistical data show that in 2024 the poor are over 1/5 of the population - 21.7%, and increase compared to the previous year by 75 thousand people. For them, the euro is a risk of another loss, another one of the many that they have already experienced. The elderly have gone through the deficits of the socialist regime, the devaluation of wages and savings in the transition and fraudulent promises of politicians.
The second group are those for whom "no lev - no state Bulgaria". National-populist parties attract them into their orbit with emotional messages, symbolism and historical myths, presenting the lev as a "battle for Bulgaria", the last barrier to "assimilation" in a supranational Europe. Through propaganda, they are given the deceptive feeling that they are participating in a battle with "Brussels", that they have control, that they are joining a cause bigger than the small everyday life of each of them. This is an emotional mobilization that the institutions ignore.
The state and business talk about European integration and economic benefits, and these people feel pressure and a threat to their identity. It is their support in a world that is changing frighteningly, in a country that has experienced a series of early elections in four years. Many of the "defenders" of the left have lost their jobs and status, and they also experience cultural marginalization - the feeling that they are not "European" in terms of education, style and language, which is why they reject those who are. When everything falls apart, "the people" becomes the last "we" to which they belong.
What will happen to their inflation and interest rates is important, but it is secondary. It is more important for them not to be depersonalized, for their voice to be heard - not only on social networks, to show that they matter. That is why it is easy for politicians to light their fuse and encourage them to commit acts of vandalism such as the red paint on the European Commission building in Sofia or others prepared for May 31.
The obscure history of the transition allowed nationalists to bring out the myth of a strong national currency on the political stall. The history of the lev, tied to the euro through the currency board, is a dark chronicle - it is a history of political greed, plunder of national resources and cynical irresponsibility towards the fate of the people. This is the currency, behind whose exchange rate is the silence about the plunder of the transition and the national catastrophe in 1996-1997. At the denomination then, Bulgarians were again frightened with high inflation from "rounding" of prices.
A campaign can reach the "guardians of the lev" and the Eurosceptics only if it is empathetic, rather than passing them by with condescension. Otherwise, they will go where they are already waiting for them - in the ranks of those who turn fear and insult into a tool for destabilization.
But Bulgarian identity does not depend on the type of banknotes (and the euro will have Bulgarian symbols), but on its contribution to the writing, spirituality and culture of Europe. So in public communication about the euro there is a place for everyone - from economists and financiers to historians and artists.
When the experts speak
"Identity is confident in itself and is not afraid of openness; nationalism is insecure, so it encapsulates itself and defends itself even from imaginary threats," wrote economist Georgi Stoev, who gathered his explanatory campaign for the euro in 20 topics, accessible to everyone.
According to financier Rumen Galabinov, Bulgarians were frightened even before joining Schengen, just as concerns are created before the eurozone. "Once we introduce the euro, it will become clear that there is nothing to fear - the difficult thing is until we accept it," he commented to the DG. According to him, the campaign could be improved by sending printed information materials - posters, leaflets and brochures with the new euro banknotes and coins - to smaller settlements, and involving mayors, municipal and regional administrations.
We are aware that certain speculations with prices are possible before the set date, we know what needs to be done, assures Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov at a financial forum. The newly elected Chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Competition, Rosen Karadimov, promised the CPC, together with other regulators, to announce measures against speculative price increases in order to help the "weak and defenseless person".
If the state continues to speak in clichés, it will betray its most important ally on the path to the eurozone - the citizens. If the campaign for the euro is not normalized, the tin drum of propaganda will silence the voices of reason.
***
This comment expresses the personal opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and the State News Agency as a whole.