"In two years we have had five parliamentary elections. It's too much!" said Iliana Iotava, Bulgaria's vice-president, who saw the 14% of the Bulgarian nationalist Renaissance party as a "vote of rejection". She takes note of this but is not overly concerned about the rise of this party. "If one day there is another party that expresses this vote of rejection, it will have much more percentage." She acknowledges that Bulgaria must "do everything possible to reduce corruption", not only vis-à-vis the people, but also vis-à-vis the European Union and the structural funds it has endowed the country as part of the recovery plan.
Bulgaria has always depended on Russia for its gas and oil supplies. The war in Ukraine has reshuffled the cards. Iliana Iotova insists that her country has started a wide diversification of resources "with contracts with France and a connection with Greece through the terminal in Alexandropolis for liquefied gas". She also insists on "something very important: Bulgaria is the only country that has a contract to use Turkey's gas infrastructure".
Iliana Iotova regrets that "the conflict in Ukraine is moving away from the idea of a European defence" and maintains that it is necessary to reflect on President Emmanuel Macron's words "for greater autonomy of Europe, greater sovereignty in Europe, and to defend our continent, as a real member of NATO but also to have its own defence."
Due to the country's political instability, Bulgaria's entry into the euro area has been postponed until 2025. The government is also rather sceptical about the adoption of the single currency. According to the Vice-President, "two years is good", because "the majority of Bulgarian citizens have certain reservations for the eurozone, not because they are against the euro, but because they do not have enough information (...) and it is the task of the government to carry out a campaign to explain and inform citizens of what will happen the day Bulgaria becomes a member of the euro area. We must also comply with all the Maastricht criteria and reduce inflation because it is a requirement."
Another European club of which Bulgaria is not a member: the Schengen area. This time, it is the Netherlands that is blocking his entry because of too much illegal immigration at the borders. Bulgaria has 130 kilometers of common border with Turkey and has obtained 600 million euros from the European Commission for the surveillance of this border – against the two billion requested). But its entry into the Schengen area is long overdue. Iliana Iotova regrets the "double standards" that Bulgaria and Romania suffer when it comes to the criteria to be respected in order to be able to enter this area, and maintains that "the border with Turkey is the EU's most secure external border now."
Show prepared by Isabelle Romero, Sophie Samaille and Perrine Desplats - Images: Johan Bodin and Stéphane Bodenne
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