"We want our leva": less than a hundred citizens with flags and whistles, guarded by twice as many police officers, crossed a pedestrian path in front of the parliament today. They participated in a protest by "Vazrazhdane" against the euro.
A weak protest in defense of the leva in front of the parliament, an empty plenary hall at a declaration by "Vazrazhdane" inside. Today, February 26, less than a hundred citizens with flags and whistles, guarded by twice as many police officers, crossed a pedestrian path on the yellow cobblestones.
This time, Kostadin Kostadinov's party did not crash dozens of buses in Sofia like on February 22, and there were no eggs with red paint thrown at the House of Europe. There were only two or three posters. There were no clashes like on Saturday, when police officers were injured and protesters were detained. In the typical "after the rain - a hood" style of the Ministry of Interior, this time there was also a gendarmerie, although there was no evidence that they would repeat the excesses of the weekend.
"We want a leva", says a woman, pinning a five-levy coin to her blouse as if at a socialite wedding. "We want our signatures from the referendum, they trampled them, and we are the people", explains another, supported by cheers from the sidelines. In July 2023, the parliament rejected "Vazrazhdane"'s petition for a referendum on whether the lev should remain the only official currency in the country until 2043, and the Constitutional Court later upheld the decision. Of the over 600,000 signatures collected, 470,000 turned out to be valid.
"The worst part of the euro is that no one asks us. Why isn't there a campaign to protect the lev, when there is a campaign for the euro?!", angrily asks a man who doesn't trust journalists and the media. Next to him, another explains that he doesn't watch Bulgarian television: "I have two computers, I've connected them to the TV and I only watch Russian television. You are all paid Sorosoids on warm services (this is to the author, b.a.)".
Among the protesters, a lone Russian flag is waving at this time - one against three Bulgarian ones. Retired teacher Margarita Georgieva from Lukovit is also particularly active in defending the leva, and when asked about its being tied to the euro after it sank in 1997, she says: "It's not true… And do you know that Bulgarians have to go home by 2025, because it's getting scary - Slava Sevryukova predicted it!"
Kostadinov: "The protests are just beginning!"
While the protesters were pacing back and forth outside, the deputies from "Vazrazhdane" tried in every way to sabotage the work of the parliament, and their leader Kostadin Kostadinov promised in a declaration that "from now on it will be like this". The threat that they would take advantage of all the loopholes in the rules of procedure of the 51st National Assembly to hinder, including the adoption of the 2025 budget, was read out in front of an almost empty hall. In addition to the MPs from Kostadinov's party, they heard it, as well as those from MECH, as well as Dragomir Stoynev from the BSP, who requested a break after its end. The remaining political forces left, but "thanks" to the nationalists, nearly an hour and a half of parliamentary time was wasted.
There was no general condemnation of the actions of "Vazrazhdane" on Saturday, although the PP-DB proposed a declaration "to discuss the systematic and aggressive actions of "Vazrazhdane" as an attempt to undermine the democratic and legal order in Bulgaria and divert it from its European path". According to the chairman of the parliamentary group of the ITN Toshko Yordanov, it is unnecessary, since "with such declarations we will glorify some lumpen... we will glorify the Easter bunnies from "Vazrazhdane" who go to throw eggs" and it is best to leave it to the prosecutor's office.
The euro is getting closer
The radicalization of "Vazrazhdane" and its voters is happening at a time when Bulgaria is accelerating its path to the eurozone, with the goal of joining from January 1, 2026. The request for extraordinary convergence reports, once the inflation criterion is met, is already known - it has already been sent to the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) to assess this readiness. These two institutions will have the final say, and when preparing the reports, not only the January inflation data will be taken into account, but also for the next 2-3 months.
According to Eurostat data, as of January 2025, the average annual inflation in Bulgaria was 2.6%, which is less than 0.1% higher than the inflation of the three best-performing eurozone countries. According to experts, these discrepancies are not particularly significant.
Along with inflation, however, Bulgaria needs to maintain stable public finances and long-term sustainability of the budget deficit. Therefore, its size in the upcoming 2025 budget, where it is pegged at the 3% limit, is important, as is how much it is on an accrual basis (i.e. revenues and expenses at the time they arise, i.e.) in last year's.
In addition, Bulgaria remains on the gray list of countries placed under increased surveillance due to "insufficient capacity in combating money laundering and terrorist financing" by the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF), where there are 23 other countries. Bulgaria was placed there in June 2023 and apparently the efforts it has made since then to get out have not yielded satisfactory results. As well as the adopted action plan, which included establishing better control over risky financial operations, more effective investigation and punishment for money laundering, and improving supervision of financial institutions.
These challenges are far more serious than the crescendo of a politician who is looking for a way to best instrumentalize civil discontent, while presenting himself as a "protector of the people". It is best to save the red eggs for Easter - they do not affect the speed of joining the eurozone, the government is on the move.