PES and BSP leader Sergey Stanishev. Photo by BGNES
Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergey Stanishev has criticized as "populist" recent promises by center-right GERB cabinet to raise budget pensions and salaries ahead of elections.
"This is unbelievable. Inflation has so much eaten up people's incomes that those raises are just an insult," said Stanishev Saturday at a socialist youth forum near the town of Kazanlak.
"We have a cabinet that's become so overfed and arrogant that now believes its own lies," quipped the angry socialist leader.
According to Stanishev, however, ever more Bulgarians refuse to accept what he termed "GERB's lies an cynicism."
The socialist leader pointed to a steadily increasing unemployment rate in Bulgaria and problems with the economy, arguing that GERB has ruined Bulgarian SMEs to benefit companies close to the party.