Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
Do you remember how the socialist government did not pursue the "Magura traders" in the past? The currency speculators from Magura lived quite well. Today, the coalition government of GERB, BSP, ITN and DPS (New Beginning) decided to harass the traders. And business is in shock from the "protection of citizens" prepared for the sake of the euro.
One thing is certain: the government's ambitions to fix food prices will only succeed in one thing - to scare Bulgarian citizens away from the introduction of the euro from January 1 due to excessive control of traders and to cause social tension in the fall.
At first glance, the measures proposed by the government seem like a heroic attempt by the "superman state" to defend the people from greedy traders. This comic is funny, but the reality is different. The urgently adopted changes to the Law on the Introduction of the Euro, even without public discussion, give the government extraordinary powers without parliamentary and judicial control. For example, to define "rules and conditions for introducing a temporary countermeasure in the event of excessive increases in the prices of goods and services".
In Bulgaria, this has never led to anything good, except for cases won in the European Court of Human Rights by victims of the arbitrariness and abuses of the institutions.
Hyperactive authorized regulators
If the extended period for double pricing - from 1 to 17 months - can be swallowed, then the drastically increased powers of the control bodies (NA, CPC, CPC) are like a state of emergency. The bill gives them the right to free access everywhere where goods and services from the basic consumer basket are sold. To check pricing, officials can request any information, and this means commercial contracts, bank details, lists of counterparties. And the business is obliged to provide it within whatever time limit they order, including "immediately". There is a gap between the lower and upper limits of the fines - from 5,000 to 100,000 leva for the first violation, they double for the second, and their appeal takes at least a year, if the company survives at all.
But the diktat reaches heights with the provision that until the end of 2026, traders do not have the right to increase prices - unless there are objective economic factors determined by the Consumer Protection Commission. This commission is headed by Maria Filipova, with an enviable career in state administration. She was appointed in 2018 as head of the State Gambling Commission by the then Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov. Filipova, known from Vasil Bozhkov's text messages as "the girl who received valuable instructions" from Goranov not to hang his gambling business, will be the arbiter of objectivity. She is also a witness against Bozhkov - for attempted rape.
In her role as chairwoman of the Consumer Protection Committee - a position she has held for 14 months, she listens to the signals coming from the DPS-New Beginning. So much so that in February this year, the Consumer Protection Committee published a press release under the title: "Maria Filipova: A large part of the grocery store chains refuse the requested information in connection with the inspections of the Consumer Protection Committee and after the appeal from the leader of the DPS-New Beginning Delyan Peevski". She says she is extremely disappointed with the behavior of the chains, "when there are suspicions of unjustified price increases, without a visible economic reason, which could lead to a complete distortion of the domestic market."
Dictatorship in an election year
The CPC will not be the first regulator to respond enthusiastically to Peevski. 2026 is an election year - a presidential autumn one, but with the option of an early parliamentary vote. With these powers, the CPC can crush quite a few businesses, destroy competition - so that the "right" entrepreneurs remain. In general, to redesign the market economy in such a way that instead of competition we have a casting for those close to the government/Peevski. And when competition in an economy decreases, this only works for higher prices and higher profits.
Doesn't the government want to collapse? Because these measures provide it with an expressway to do so. The first effect will be a price increase before January 1, and they are already going up. Inflation for June showed an increase of 0.4% compared to the previous month - and 4.4% on an annual basis (June 2024-June 2025), with the largest price increase being observed in hotels, restaurants, entertainment.
Former Finance Minister Assen Vassilev - and leader of "We Continue the Change", predicts an anticipatory price increase in the next two weeks. "You have a business and today they tell you that from August 8th in the next 18 months you cannot raise prices. What will you do until August 8th? You will raise prices sharply now to insure yourself against arbitrariness after that date", he said in parliament.
The psychological effect of such measures also "raises" prices, because businesses and citizens expect a price shock. "With their hyperactivity, state authorities bear a large part of the blame for this hysteria with price increases", said Dimo Drenchev from "Vazrazhdane". But they are also scaring us. "Big business has driven us crazy. "The big retail chains have sent us letters asking us not to raise prices until the New Year," dairy producer Dimitar Zorov said on bTV.
So then everyone will catch up.
The gray sector is still graying
In an article on the "Mediapool" website, former Prime Minister Ivan Kostov proposes other anti-inflation measures, including limiting the growth of incomes, which are growing ahead of labor productivity, and the gray sector, which in Bulgaria reaches 31-32% of GDP. His forecast is that inflation "will almost certainly exceed expectations" and the government must prepare.
However, there is a lack of political will to freeze wages, and those in power pretend not to notice the cash coming out into the open, the boom in real estate transactions and purchases of new cars. Bulgaria is fifth in the EU in terms of registered new cars in May, with an increase of almost 20% compared to May last year.
But poverty has also expanded its perimeter. According to Eurostat data, in 2024, 1.401 million people or 21.7% of the population will be poor - 1.1 percent more than in 2023. There are also poor people among the working class, in addition to the unemployed and pensioners, and they all feel the most painfully any increase in food prices.
However, the government postponed the "shops for the people" guaranteed by Peevski. The creation of a state-owned company "Shop for the People", which will initially receive 10 million leva, was dropped from the Council of Ministers meeting without explanation. It seems that not everything is settled with the Central Cooperative Union, whose stores the discount chain (of Peevski) will rent in order to sell with up to a 10% markup.
The question is "Prices down, control up!".
And that means... and battles over oil.