Deputy Chairwoman of the GERB-SDF Parliamentary Group Denitsa Sacheva published a comment on her Facebook page regarding the draft Budget 2026 presented earlier today.
The man who governed Bulgaria for 11 months as Prime Minister over the past 5 years, together with his deputy ministers, each of whom was Minister of Finance for the past 5 years, came out, presented the budget for 2026 and blamed everything on....the heavy legacy.
What did Galab Donev tell us?
1. "We will not reduce incomes", but in fact he is increasing social security contributions
This is the first contradiction.
Donev claims that he will not reduce incomes, but at the same time increases the maximum social security income, raises the minimum social security thresholds and transfers social security contributions to civil servants.
If the state has to compensate all employees so that they do not lose net income, a simple question arises:
Where then is the budget effect?
If there is compensation – there is no saving.
If there is saving – there is a decrease in real income.
Both statements cannot be true at the same time.
2. The largest revenue measure is... vignette
It is striking how weak the package of revenue measures is. 30% increase in vignettes. 5% increase in minimum insurance thresholds. Higher maximum insurance income.
This is not a reform.
This is a transfer of the burden to the people who are already paying.
There is not a single serious structural measure for economic growth.
3. The big problem remains intact – the public sector
Donev blames the public sector for the deficit. Then, however, he explicitly says that there will be no cuts in the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense. They have some of the fastest growing expenses in recent years. He announces the problem, but excludes its largest components from the solution.
4. Fighting the shadow economy is a budget fantasy
Lyudmila Petkova claims that the shadow economy is 34.6% of GDP.
If this is true, this means tens of billions of euros. But the budget relies on the effects of measures that do not yet exist: future electronic invoicing; future control mechanisms and future sector inspections. In other words, part of the revenue base is built on the assumption that the administration will suddenly become much more efficient.
This is not revenue policy. This is hope.
5. The deficit is growing twice as much, and the debt continues to grow even more explosively
Here is the biggest blow. Donev presents the budget as a recovery budget.
But his own numbers show:
2026 - 37.7 billion euros in debt;
2027 - 44.7 billion euros;
2028 - 50.5 billion euros.
That is, in two years the state debt is growing by almost 13 billion euros.
The question is:
If this is recovery, what does the disease look like?