On January 1, Bulgaria joins the eurozone, becoming the 21st country to adopt the single European currency, an integration that some fear could fuel inflation and worsen political instability. Over the summer, a protest movement calling for the “maintenance of the Bulgarian lev” emerged, led by far-right and pro-Russian parties, playing on Bulgarians’ fears of rising prices. But for successive governments who pushed for its adoption, the euro will boost the economy of the European Union’s poorest country, strengthen its ties with Western Europe and protect it from Russian influence.
Before Bulgaria, Croatia, in 2023, became the last country to adopt the single currency, which was initially introduced on 1 January 2002 in twelve EU countries. The Balkan country of 6.4 million people, a member of the EU since 2007, is however facing significant challenges following the anti-corruption protests that recently toppled the conservative coalition government, which had been in power for less than a year, and with the prospect of new parliamentary elections, the eighth in five years. In this context of instability, any problems related to the introduction of the euro will be exploited by anti-EU politicians, believes Boryana Dimitrova of the Alpha Research polling institute, which studies public opinion on the euro for a year.
According to the latest opinion poll by the EU’s Eurobarometer polling agency, 49% of Bulgarians oppose the single currency. The anxiety is particularly palpable in poor rural areas.
After the hyperinflation of the 1990s, following the fall of communism, Bulgaria pegged its currency to the German mark and then to the euro, thus already becoming dependent on the monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB), without however having a say in the matter.
One sector in particular is expected to benefit from the euro in the Black Sea country: tourism, which generated about 8% of GDP this year. In an attempt to reassure public opinion, Parliament has strengthened the supervisory bodies responsible for investigating sudden price increases and curbing any “unjustified” increases linked to the changeover to the euro during the summer.
