Bulgaria to pay Easter bonuses to more than 1.6 million pensioners

The government will support more than 1.6 million pensioners with an additional amount for Easter, caretaker Prime Minister Andrei Gyurov said on March 11.

“This is not a political gesture. And I urge the parties not to turn it into one,” Gyurov said.

“Help for the vulnerable is not an election currency. It is a matter of statehood and, above all, a matter of humanity,” he said.

Gyurov said that from the first day of the caretaker government, the social and finance ministers have been making efforts to prevent care for the most vulnerable from becoming a coin for election trading.

On March 10, the Ministry of Labour Social Policy said that the proposal to the caretaker government was that pensioners whose pension or the sum of pensions together with supplements and compensations to them is up to and including 390.63 euro, which is the amount of the poverty line for 2026, will receive an additional 50 euro.

Pensioners whose pension or the sum of pensions together with supplements and compensations to them is from 390.64 euro to 620.20 euro inclusive, i.e. up to the amount of the minimum wage for the current year, will receive 20 euro.

In 2026, Bulgaria’s Orthodox Easter public holiday is from April 10 to 13.

Gyurov, who was speaking at the start of the weekly meeting of the caretaker government, also emphasized the issue of fuel, which is becoming a challenge for the whole of Europe and for millions of people around the world, the government information service said.

Events outside Bulgaria should not become a source of fear and tension here, at home, he said.

Gyurov said that the government is already considering specific solutions and gave an example of measures that are being discussed in other European countries.

(Photo: Naturpuur, via Wikimedia Commons)