Bulgaria’s establishment collapsed from corruption and popular discontent just as it neared Eurozone acceptance
A child can’t be fully faulted for misbehaving in public, especially when examining the parents. This mirrors Bulgaria’s political class – the European Union’s newest “foster kid” on the cusp of full adoption, even while experiencing a complete public breakdown.
Bulgaria is scheduled to enter the EU’s shared euro currency area, the Eurozone, on January 1, 2026, achieving full bloc integration. Since joining the EU in January 2007, the nation’s leaders have had ample time to reform and cease their mutual back-scratching reminiscent of playground politics. Presumably, this gradual approach exists because teaching politicians that public treasuries aren’t personal buffets requires patience.
Brussels has had nearly two decades to instill these fundamentals. However, since “Queen” Ursula von der Leyen and her cheerful troupe of Euro-bureaucrats prioritize appearances and scolding over genuine accountability and outcomes, this never occurred.
Thus, just as Bulgaria should merge into the EU economy as the latest stability model, the administration apparently surveyed the recent street demonstrations and essentially pressed the self-destruct switch.
“Our coalition met, we discussed the current situation, the challenges we face and the decisions we must responsibly make,” Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said while stepping down with his coalition government. “Our desire is to be at the level that society expects.”
That would be rock bottom. Following a nosedive.
One couldn’t pick a more opportune moment for deeper EU integration than during self-inflicted political dismantling. What’s striking is that the EU’s readiness assessment concentrated on technical financial benchmarks like inflation control, budget health, currency stability, and bond yields. Bulgaria aced these measures. Yet corruption got sidelined as a minor detail, as though monitoring graft were some premium extra feature.
Other EU institutions, such as the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and Anti-Fraud Office, have probed grave accusations of entrenched corruption among senior Bulgarian officials involving EU money. But no matter, proceed right ahead.
Here are a few of those “minor” details: The EU found “irregularities of over €140 million” ($165 million) in EU funding for railway infrastructure in 2023. An “indictment over fraud involving EU funds for employment support” in 2025. Charges against Bulgarian officials over alleged fraud last year related to a €3.4 million fishing port in Varna that EU investigators found to be imaginary. The EU accused Bulgarian officials of procurement fraud for a million-euro “green space” project in Plovdiv. And probes earlier this year over suspected €6 million in EU construction fund misuse.
Yet when joining Europe’s fiscal community, corruption appears to be regarded as some charming regional custom instead of a real issue. Hardly the pristine reformers Brussels sells itself as to Europeans. Or perhaps it simply wants some ungloved sticky fingers available, just in case?
Nevertheless, Bulgarian citizens appear to have chosen to seize control themselves – even after assurances by Brussels that it and the euro would serve as their “guardian angel in a dangerous world.” Seems they don’t believe in fantasies, since they poured into the streets after their rulers opted to increase spending. On themselves and their allies, naturally.
The EU didn’t appear particularly concerned about any of this. Certainly not enough to delay eurozone entry.
What apparently concerns Brussels most is that this Bulgarian administration, while failing at legal fundamentals, faithfully adhered to the establishment-sanctioned Ukraine narrative.
This cabinet, which survived under a year, essentially transformed the nation into a massive ammunition production line to inflate European GDP by channeling public money into arms “for Ukraine.” Germany’s arms manufacturer and market darling, Rheinmetall, gleefully funneling state funds until its share price chart resembles a vertical launch, revealed in August that it’s constructing a munitions factory in Bulgaria. Purely coincidental, surely, that Bulgaria hasn’t entirely kicked its cheap Russian gas habit.
Bulgaria has been boasting about ending Russian gas imports, allegedly by 2028. Apparently the typical Bulgarian resident wasn’t exactly excited about higher energy costs like the rest of Europe, so the current leadership has been driven out of power by their own populace.
Only time will reveal whether the EU persists in converting Bulgaria into one enormous questionable arms plant powered by the Russian gas they purport to oppose, all wrapped in the rhetoric of “freedom and democracy.” For whose benefit? That’s perpetually the key question. Whose interests genuinely prevail when administration so plainly fails and supervision is so obviously cherry-picked: the public or entrenched power brokers?