Poll: 49% of Bulgarians against the euro, 36% for
Forty-nine per cent of Bulgarians are against the euro and 36 per cent in favour, according to the findings of a Eurobarometer poll released on February 23.
Of the remainder of those polled, 13 per cent refused to answer the question and two per cent said “don’t know”.
The outcome of the poll in Bulgaria is in stark contrast to the findings across the EU in the poll, which was done in all 27 EU member states between January 12 and February 6 2023.
The Eurobarometer poll found that support for the euro remains at a very high level in the EU as a whole (71 per cent, the second highest level ever recorded), and even more in the euro zone (79 per cent).
As The Sofia Globe reported at the time, on February 17, Bulgaria’s caretaker Finance Minister Rossitsa Velkova said that Bulgaria would miss its January 1 2024 target date for joining the euro zone.
The release of the first results of the Eurobarometer Winter Poll coincided with a visit to Sofia by European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis, who said that the EC would continue to support Bulgaria on its path to the euro. He expressed hope that the delay in Bulgaria joining the euro zone would not be long, according to a report by Bulgarian news agency BTA.
Dombrovskis said that there should be a campaign to inform Bulgarians of the benefits of euro accession.
Recently, the Finance Ministry and the central bank posted a FAQ (in English at this link) with information about the euro and the process of accession.
Currently, pro-Russian minority party Vuzrazhdane is gathering signatures for a petition for a national referendum on euro accession, which it opposes.
While the Eurobarometer poll found negative attitudes to the euro, it found that 49 per cent of Bulgarians had a positive image of the EU, 31 per cent a negative image and 18 per cent a neutral one.
Forty-five per cent of those polled in Bulgaria said that they trusted the EU, 40 per cent said that they did not and 15 per cent were undecided.
Forty-two per cent said that the European economy was in good condition, 33 per cent said that it was in bad condition and 25 per cent were undecided.
Eighty per cent said that Bulgaria’s economy was in bad shape, 14 per cent said that it was in good shape and six per cent answered “don’t know”.
(Photo: Filippo Vicarelli/freeimages.com)
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