For second time, Bulgaria’s Parliament overwhelmingly rejects holding referendum on euro adoption
For a second time, Bulgaria’s Parliament has overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by pro-Kremlin minority party Vuzrazhdane on holding a referendum on retaining the lev as Bulgaria’s currency until 2043.
The vote on September 4 was rejected with 107 against, from Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF, the reformist We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms parliamentary group and two MPs who are not members of a parliamentary group.
Those who voted in favour of a referendum were 63 MPs, from Vuzrazhdane, populist ITN, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and 12 MPs who are not members of a parliamentary group.
Parliament rejected the same proposal by Vuzrazhdane in a vote in July 2023.
The September 4 debate, lasting close to two hours, came as Bulgaria heads to early parliamentary elections on October 27, with Vuzrazhdane among those using the resumption of sittings of the National Assembly as a platform for pet vote-getting issues.
Vuzrazhdane had help from ITN in getting support for putting the item on the Order Paper.
Debate proceeded in the absence of most other parliamentary groups, leaving Vuzrazhdane to talk largely to themselves, with leader Kostadin Kostadinov’s group exploiting the occasion to launch electioneering attacks on other formations.
ITN backed having the debate in line with its stated policy of putting practically everything to a referendum, though the group said that in the event of a referendum on the euro, it would oppose retaining the lev as Bulgaria’s sole currency.
Among the few on the pro-euro side to bother participating in the time-wasting exercise was WCC-DB’s Yavor Bozhanov, who pointed out that the issue of introducing the euro is linked to Bulgaria’s EU membership agreement, and this means that it could not be subject to a referendum.
Bozhanov said that Vuzrazhdane was using the topic for electioneering.
WCC-DB’s Martin Dimitrov, expressed suspicion that Vuzrazhdane wanted to get Bulgaria out of the EU and Nato.
“Let’s look at the interests of Bulgaria, not the people who were in Moscow yesterday,” Dimitrov said, referring to the Vuzrazhdane delegation that attended a BRICS event in Moscow.
BRICS is an intergovernmental organisation comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Responding to Dimitrov’s speech, Vuzrazhdane admitted that one of their ambitions is for Bulgaria to join BRICS.
Currently, there is no confirmed date for Bulgaria to join the euro. This year, Bulgaria’s government – somewhat belatedly – launched a campaign against disinformation about euro adoption, including against baseless claims that doing so would have a negative effect on Bulgaria’s economy.
(Photo, of the Cabinet building, the Party House – currently being used for sittings of the National Assembly – and the Presidency building: parliament.bg)
Please support The Sofia Globe’s independent journalism by becoming a subscriber to our page on Patreon:
