site.btaSocialist Leader, GERB Leader Comment on Postponement of 2024 State Budget Adoption

The postponement of the adoption of the 2024 budget is a time bomb, BSP leader Korneliya Ninova told journalists in Yambol, where she was to support the Socialist candidates for mayors and municipal councillors in the five municipalities of the region. “We do not have time, it is a big mistake that they postponed it,” she added.

"They did it deliberately to hide from the people that they have foreseen raising taxes and freezing social spending so that it would not affect the outcome of the elections," Ninova argued. According to her, there will not be enough time to consider the budget. "They are going to drag it out. The majority is acting arrogantly," the Socialist leader pointed out.

She also argued that Bulgaria will not manage to join Schengen by the end of the year. "The government is reacting inadequately in this direction also. We have to prepare for a huge migrant pressure after the outbreak of the war in Israel," Ninova said.

She described as worrying that the Council of Europe adopted a common decision on a new regulation on migration policy on October 4, which envisages each member state to adopt quotas. "Nobody in Bulgaria knows what position the Bulgarian government has taken there," Ninova stressed.

GERB leader Boyko Borissov also commented on the issue during a meeting of his party in Plovdiv. He said he will insist on a conservative budget. "The first year to tighten the belts, the second and the third to even the balance," he stated.

"Let them take on debt, let them replace old debt, that is fair," Borissov added. He argued that the previous Budget was adopted in order to enter the local elections with a budget. In addition to the surpluses they have realized, the GERB leader recalled that the Budget Act envisaged BGN 1.3 billion leva for the completion of the Hemus Motorway, over BGN 1 billion  for the water supply and sewerage sector, and have prepaid BGN 2.2 billion for the US aircraft. "In 2017, we had a 25% debt, which decreased to 20% in 2019," Borissov said, adding that the debt is currently very high.