President Iliana Iotova announced that she is promulgating the draft law on the State Budget for 2026. This means that she will not have to veto the fiscal framework, Nova TV reports.
The budget is promulgated by a presidential decree in the State Gazette in order to enter into force. The process includes a vote by parliament, issuing a decree and publication.
Iotova justified her decision with the need to guarantee the country's financial and institutional stability. The head of state emphasized that despite the existing criticism of individual texts and parameters of the budget, returning it for a new discussion would deepen uncertainty at a time when Bulgaria is already in an excessive deficit procedure and must work with the new currency - the euro.
According to her, the presidential institution received a total of 69 opinions from political parties, unions and civil society organizations. Only four of them contained motivated requests to return the law to parliament by imposing a veto. “We carefully familiarized ourselves with each opinion, with the discussions and disputes held in the National Assembly, as well as with the public points of view“, said the president.
Yotova admitted that the concerns about the budget are completely understandable. According to her, there are serious questions both about the size of the budget deficit and about the practice of amending existing regulatory acts through the transitional and final provisions of the law. “Concerns related to the size of the budget deficit, as well as the amendments and supplements to existing laws through the transitional and final provisions of the budget law, are understandable,“ she noted.
The President emphasized that such legislative changes should be adopted only after broad public discussion and a mandatory impact assessment.
“Changes in laws should occur after independent consideration, public discussion and a mandatory risk assessment,“ said Yotova.
She also indicated that the presidential institution in principle supports calls for stricter financial discipline and more responsible management of public funds. In his statement, the head of state recalled the circumstances under which the budget was prepared. According to her, Bulgaria has been working for seven months with a twice-extended budget for 2025, prepared in leva, while from January 1, 2026, the country has already been using the euro.
She also drew attention to the decision of the Council of the European Union of July 10 this year to open an excessive deficit procedure against Bulgaria. “The recommendations are for taking measures to gradually limit the deficit and reduce it over the next three years“, the president pointed out.
Iotova also presented alarming data on the state of public finances. According to her, at present, over 3 billion euros of debts remain unpaid, and approximately another 1 billion euros will not be received as revenue in the budget, since they have already been collected in advance.
“Over 3 billion euros have not been paid. About 1 billion will not enter the revenue part of the budget, because they have already been collected in advance,“ she said.
The president explained that these liabilities include unpaid commitments accumulated in previous years - including to municipalities, firms and companies that have fulfilled their contracts but have not received the funds due.
“The time has come for the state to pay the old bills,“ emphasized Yotova.
According to her, the real financial situation may turn out to be even worse. “I expect the ministries and agencies to complete this picture, because I have concerns that not everything is known yet“, the president also said.
Iotova also drew attention to the serious difficulties in implementing the budget, as it enters into force retroactively - from January 1, 2026, although it was adopted only at the end of July.
“The 2026 law enters into force retroactively - from January 1. It is adopted at the end of the seventh month, when a large part of the revenues and expenditures have already been realized, which makes planning extremely difficult“, she warned.
As the main reason for not imposing a veto, the president highlighted the need for the state to avoid even greater financial and institutional instability. “Despite the remarks on some budget parameters, the presidential institution cannot allow any more institutional and financial uncertainty for the state“, said Yotova.
According to her, Bulgaria is the only country in the European Union that operates under similar conditions. “Returning the law for new discussion would put the state's finances at even greater risk after August 1, 2026“, the head of state warned.
Yotova pointed out that the majority of the opinions received actually insisted that the budget enter into force as soon as possible, so that state institutions, municipalities, companies and organizations could plan their activities by the end of the year.
“Many times more than the negative opinions were the calls to the presidential institution that this partial budget for the remaining five months enter into force as soon as possible, because no system, organization, structure, firm or company can adopt its own budget and even make residual planning“, the president also said.
The PP has already announced that if it does not come to a veto, they will refer it to the Constitutional Court. They have already collected over 26,000 signatures with this appeal. A similar intention has already been expressed by GERB-SDF. The possible referral to the Constitutional Court will not stop the fiscal framework from entering into force on August 1. Only the texts that are attacked would be problematic. For them, the MPs will have to look for a new solution. Until then, the previous provisions remain in force.
They explained that the reason was the planned deficit of over 3%. GERB leader Boyko Borisov recalled that even before the budget was adopted, the party warned that it contradicted the Constitution precisely because of the planned deficit.
And on July 24, Iliyana Yotova stated that she had signed off on the budgets of the NHIF and DOO. At that time, she indicated that the presidency had received 25 opinions on the small budgets, none of which called for a presidential veto. Yotova indicated that the texts have been examined in detail and the opinion is that the two small budgets - for the NHIF and the DOO, have no problems either fiscally or constitutionally.