Former Deputy Prime Minister Nikolay Vassilev: I would tear up this budget as a regular government, throw it in the trash and write a new one

I would tear up this budget like a regular government, throw it in the trash and write a new one that has nothing to do with the current one." Nikolay Vassilev said this in the studio of "On Focus" on Nova TV. He is an economist, former deputy prime minister, former minister from the time of the NDSV, and later also of the triple coalition. Vassilev was also the candidate of ITN for Prime Minister in an expert cabinet.

"I do not approve of the budget policy. It is characterized by one thing: We take on as much debt as possible. We have as many deficits as possible. We are handing out as much as we can, larger social costs that we finance only with credits and the money from the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, which is not for this. This is how we shoot until there are cartridges in the machine gun. If there are billions to spend, we spend them without asking," said the economist. According to him, the words "deficit" and "updating" should be banned in the budget policy.

"I am against touching taxes. I even propose that under the right conditions, for example, next year, the profit tax and the general income tax should drop to 9%. Taxes are fine and we collect more or less as much as we should. The problem is the costs", the expert is categorical. According to him, high state spending should be limited.

Vassilev also commented on the political situation in our country. "Nowadays the differences between the parties are relatively small, but personal hatred and the inability to sit at the same table at all destroys everything." According to him, the political formations that joined the triple coalition years ago had diametrically different views, but they were united by the national interest. The former deputy prime minister expressed hope that a regular cabinet would be formed within the framework of the 49th National Assembly, stressing that "some government is better than no government at all".

"Usually, politicians go down in history not with such nonsense as 'we will not form a government for the fifth time', but with the big decisions, big reforms and goals they have achieved", Vassilev said and added that in the last two years no one abroad takes Bulgaria seriously because of the political crisis. The economist believes that all parties should be more dialogic, as ITN is doing in this parliament. "My greatest hope is related to the first term," he admitted.