A few short weeks from today, on June 5th, the European Commission (EC) and the European Central Bank (ECB) will release a so-called convergence report, which will confirm that the country meets the economic criteria to join the Eurozone. This report and its ramifications (i.e. Bulgaria’s ‘admission’ into the Eurozone) are problematic on two accounts:
(1) the report’s conclusions are based on fraudulent data regarding Bulgaria’s budget deficit and inflation numbers and
(2) the majority of Bulgarians want to keep our national currency, the Bulgarian lev.
Why am I writing about this?
Because our so-called national government has refused to acknowledge the voice and the will of the people and has put the country on a path to financial tyranny.
Budget Deficit
In order to demonstrate financial stability, a Eurozone candidate country has to have a budget deficit not exceeding 3% of GDP.
The acting government in 2024 took an unconventional approach to finagle the numbers: government agencies postponed payments to social and other programs until after December, effectively transferring 2024 obligations to 2025. So, if you were the caretaker of a disabled individual or a business contracted with the government, you had to wait in the name of keeping the government spending down for the year thus preserving the country’s eligibility for Eurozone accession.
Some may call this government deception fraud, but I doubt that the ECB found this behavior problematic. After all, the head of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, has a criminal record in France. In 2016, Lagarde was convicted of ‘negligence’ for her role in defrauding French taxpayers of 400 million euros when she served as France’s first female finance minister in 2008.
“International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has been convicted over her role in a controversial €400m (£355m) payment to a businessman.
French judges found Ms Lagarde guilty of negligence for failing to challenge the state arbitration payout to the friend of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy [Bernard Tapie].
The 60-year-old, following a week-long trial in Paris, was not given any sentence and will not be punished. The Court of Justice of the Republic, a special tribunal for ministers, could have given Ms Lagarde up to one-year in prison and a €13,000 fine. (The Independent, December 19, 2016, emphasis added).
Screenshot: The Independent, December 2016
.
“Christine Lagarde is on record in expressing here thanks to the IMF and the IMF Executive Board.
The record of this IMF Executive board meeting in support of Christine Lagarde has not been made public. (See Global Research)
The ‘payment’ benefited Bernard Tapie, a shady businessman, owner of the soccer club Olympique de Marseille and an associate of then president Nicolas Sarkozy.
By the time of the conviction, Mrs. Lagarde had moved on to an even more impressive gig as the managing director of the institutional economic “hit man” known as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organization that ravages the economies of indebted countries under the guise of assistance. The conviction did not affect Lagarde’s employment (perhaps it even solidified it).
While at the IMF, Mrs. Lagarde notably presided over the dismantling of the neighboring Greek economy (Greece has been an unfortunate member of the Eurozone since 2001): along with the EU, the IMF provided billions in emergency funds to ‘help’ Greece service its debt in return for draconian austerity measures and predatory privatization of key state infrastructure.
Naturally, the billions ended up in the coffers of the creditors, French and German banks. So, it is this Mrs. Lagarde who will approve Bulgaria’s Eurozone membership, because she truly believes that our deficit stands at 3%.
Inflation
After deftly fitting Bulgaria’s budget deficit into the 3% frame, our treasonous, lying and cheating government set out to demonstrate that we meet the price stability criterion for joining the Eurozone by proving that inflation did not exceed 2.53%. To measure inflation, the ECB uses the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), which is Eurospeak for the Consumer Price Index, for the previous 12 months (i.e. from June 2024 to May 2025).
You would be surprised to find out that according to Bulgaria’s National Statistical Institute, as of March 2025, the average annual inflation rate (total HICP for commodity groups) in Bulgaria stood at exactly 2.5% and was thus in perfect harmony with the government’s assertion that inflation rates in the country are commensurate with the ECB’s price stability criterion.
Now, I am not an economist, but even I was able to spot some curious numbers in the statistical table linked below; for example Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages together went up by 4%; however, Food by itself went up by 3.7% and Non-Alcoholic Beverages by themselves went up by 6.8%. The average of 3.7% and 6.8% is 5.25% and not 4%, but maybe statisticians have a different way of calculating averages. Transport prices went up (by a modest .4%), yet Package holidays went down (by 1%).
Okay, maybe Hotel and Restaurant prices went down? No, they went up too (by 3.8%). What really floored me was the whooping 14.3% decrease in air travel prices. Have you seen airline prices go down anywhere in the past 20 years? I haven’t either. And I bet other Bulgarian travelers would be surprised by this number as well. Before moving on to the citizen-consumer part of my piece, let me share one recent fact about a price increase in Bulgaria: on January 1st, bread prices rose by 20% because a value added tax of 20% that had been previously removed was restored. What does this tell us about price stability in Bulgaria and the 2.5% inflation rate?
Bulgarian Citizens Overwhelmingly Oppose Entering the Eurozone
Bulgarians want to keep the national currency, the lev, because they know that adopting the euro will cause inflation. It has happened in every single country that entered the Eurozone. Even in Germany in 2000. And believe me, Bulgaria in 2025 is nothing like Germany in 2000. Prices in Bulgaria are already exorbitant considering the average income. My expat friends and I frequently discuss how much more expensive items are in absolute terms compared to the countries we reside in, such as the United States, France or Germany. Check out a Bulgarian real estate site to see what I mean. Even the EC’s very own statistics agency, Eurostat, recognizes the economic fragility of the Bulgarian population: according to Eurostat, 30% of Bulgarians are ‘at risk of poverty and social exclusion.’
.
Relentless Road to Mass Poverty
The real number is probably above 50% and we’re not talking about ‘risk’ but reality. Entering the Eurozone will effectively starve a large portion of the population. But, to paraphrase Klaus Schwab, maybe we will “eat nothing and be happy”.
Well, you might ask, if people understand the dangers of entering the Eurozone, why don’t they do something to stop the process?
In 2023, the main, and one might argue the only real opposition party, Revival, gathered more than 600,000 signatures in a petition for a referendum about the adoption of the euro. Revival introduced the matter for a vote in parliament, but the proposal to hold a referendum did not pass. As a last official resort, Revival filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court (which is about as politically independent as the Supreme Court in the United States, i.e. it is totally political and controlled by the ruling parties), but the court declared that a referendum on the subject would be unconstitutional because it was a matter of an international treaty. According to the Court, as EU citizens, Bulgarians lost their ability to choose their currency. Finally, in February of this year, Revival organized a protest in Sofia in defense of the Bulgarian lev. The protest was condemned by both the ruling parties and the members of their mainstream media, as well as by the European Commission. In what can be seen as a campaign of political intimidation, the authorities collected the personal information of some protesters while they were on their way home, and arrested and held several protesters in prison for throwing red paint at the building of the European Commission.
To add insult to injury, in the past couple of days the current government has embarked on a taxpayer-funded ‘information/communication campaign’ (disinformation or propaganda would probably be more apt descriptions) by which it seeks to convince the electorate that it previously deprived of a voice in the matter that the adoption of the euro is a logical and positive next step in our Euro-integration, whatever that means.
You will use the euro and you will be happy. And wealthy. Right.
Conclusion
Why am I writing this? Because I want to speak for the Bulgarian people who disagree with a policy that will deprive us of our ability to govern our own affairs, both on a national and on a personal level.
The physical euro will bleed our bank accounts while its CBDC counterpart, whose introduction was gleefully announced by Mrs. Lagarde [who has a criminal record] will turn us into literal slaves to a system that does not tolerate dissent.
Maybe this is a futile exercise of my freedom of speech. Maybe mine is, in the words of a great Bulgarian poet, ‘a voice in the wilderness.’ But I am sick and tired of watching not just Bulgarians, but the whole of humanity, be stripped of our dignity and led into a dark prison with no exit.
And speaking of humanity, I am going to end this on what may seem like a completely unrelated note, although sooner or later we come to the conclusion that everything is connected.
Let us shake off the deathly numbness, remember our humanity, find courage and come out in force against the genocide of Palestinians in the Middle East and the slaughter of Slavic men in Eastern Europe.
Update:
A few hours after I finished writing this piece on May 9th, Bulgaria’s president, Rumen Radev, addressed the nation to inform us that he was proposing a vote in parliament about a referendum regarding the adoption of the euro.
Initially, four political parties have voiced their support for the proposal, three are opposed and still two have not announced their position on the subject.
Whether Mr. Radev made this move for his own political reasons remains to be seen; what matters is that he clearly articulated that it is the opinion of the Bulgarian people and not that of our compromised political class that should determine the country’s monetary future and, by extension, its citizens’ rights and freedoms.
Oops. It’s not dirty money
The 20 Euro bill is Signed by Christine Lagarde. “In the Eurozone We Trust”
And speaking of humanity, I am going to end this on what may seem like a completely unrelated note, although sooner or later we come to the conclusion that everything is connected.
Let us shake off the deathly numbness, remember our humanity, find courage and come out in force against the genocide of Palestinians in the Middle East and the slaughter of Slavic men in Eastern Europe.
Update:
A few hours after I finished writing this piece on May 9th, Bulgaria’s president, Rumen Radev, addressed the nation to inform us that he was proposing a vote in parliament about a referendum regarding the adoption of the euro.
Initially, four political parties have voiced their support for the proposal, three are opposed and still two have not announced their position on the subject.
Whether Mr. Radev made this move for his own political reasons remains to be seen; what matters is that he clearly articulated that it is the opinion of the Bulgarian people and not that of our compromised political class that should determine the country’s monetary future and, by extension, its citizens’ rights and freedoms.
*
Click the share button below to email/forward this article. Follow us on Instagram and X and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.
Silvia Rousseva is a teacher and renowned author
Sources
https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/euro/enlargement-euro-area/convergence-reports_en
https://nsi.bg/en/content/2526/hicp-december-previous-year-100
http://slovo.bg/showwork.php3?AuID=2&WorkID=3168&Level=1
https://litclub.bg/library/bg/botev/poezia/obesvaneto.htm
https://www.novinite.com/articles/232224/BREAKING%3A+Bulgaria%E2%80%99s+President+Calls+for+Referendum+on+Euro+Adoption+in+2026
https://www.bta.bg/bg/news/bulgaria/887396-rumen-radev-vnasya-v-parlamenta-predlozhenie-za-referendum-za-evroto
Featured image: Bulgarian currency | © Victor Lauer / Shutterstock
Global Research is a reader-funded media. We do not accept any funding from corporations or governments. Help us stay afloat. Click the image below to make a one-time or recurring donation.
Counter Information publish all articles following the Creative Commons rule creative commons. If you don't want your article to appear in this blog email me and I will remove it asap.
No comments:
Post a Comment