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I happened to be in downtown Sofia last night by chance and saw the massive protest. https://apnews.com/article/bulgaria-euro-protest-nationalists-eb9a054f062b

by aorth 1y ago

I happened to be in downtown Sofia last night by chance and saw the massive protest. https://apnews.com/article/bulgaria-euro-protest-nationalists-eb9a054f062b21bad04a802caf467407 https://apnews.com/article/bulgaria-euro-protest-nationalist...

windowshopping 1y ago
I don't know if it's their intention but as soon as the article mentions that the protest leader is pro-Russian, I immediately assume anything he stands for is wrong and therefore euro adoption must be good. Of course someone pro-Russian is trying to push countries away from integrating with the West, and I have to assume any arguments he's making are probably disingenuous and misleading.
- akmarinov 1y ago
  And you’re right in this case!
petre 1y ago
There were even Russians at some of the anti Euro protests. Probably proped up by the Kremlin through Tiktok and Telegram. Bulgaria has a pegged currency to the Euro since forever, they got quite depopulated after 1991 and their only chance is to become a tourist destination and to attract some investments from Türkye and maybe Greece, because nobody else would invest. The fact that Romania isn't interested in builing more bridges over the Danube and that Serbia isn't part of the EU also puts the northern part of Bulgaria in a tight spot. If you want to see what a depopulated country looks like, travel through northern Bulgaria. It looks like the descriptions from the book The World Without Us.
LfLxfxxLxfxx 1y ago
If opposition to the Euro is so massive, can't they simply hold a referendum over it?
- akmarinov 1y ago
  It’s not, it’s a couple hundred people and it’s mostly old folks that are 60+, as they’re easy to be riled up due to them longing for russian occupation. Also a referendum on the topic was ruled illegal, because it’ll violate the EU accession, where EU adoption is mandatory when criteria are met. Also it’s too late now, it all depends on two votes on the 8th of July by the ministers of finance and the EU parliament. Bulgaria has no way of pulling out now, without doing massive damage to their EU integration, credit score and investors’ interest.
  - t0bia_s 1y ago
    It is legal to do referendum about entering EU, but illegal to do referendum about leaving EU? It sounds quite totalitarian.
    - akmarinov 1y ago
      It’s legal to do a referendum about leaving the EU, but no one wants that and it’d be a political suicide to suggest it. Alt right politicians mostly want a referendum against the euro specifically, so that they can get points when the main parties can’t deliver it, they don’t want to exit the EU.
      - t0bia_s 1y ago
        So called "alt right" and similar labelling is common for those who are scared of these ideas and not willing to listen true reasons. We have demonstrations about every month for calls to reform EU structures or leave EU in current bureaucratic form.
- saturn_vk 1y ago
  The Bulgarian currency has been pegged to the Deutsche Mark for more than twenty years now. This means that we’ve pretty much been using the euro since its inception, and any opposition is just a populist manoeuvring

by aorth 1y ago

windowshopping 1y ago

I don't know if it's their intention but as soon as the article mentions that the protest leader is pro-Russian, I immediately assume anything he stands for is wrong and therefore euro adoption must be good. Of course someone pro-Russian is trying to push countries away from integrating with the West, and I have to assume any arguments he's making are probably disingenuous and misleading.

akmarinov 1y ago
And you’re right in this case!

petre 1y ago

There were even Russians at some of the anti Euro protests. Probably proped up by the Kremlin through Tiktok and Telegram. Bulgaria has a pegged currency to the Euro since forever, they got quite depopulated after 1991 and their only chance is to become a tourist destination and to attract some investments from Türkye and maybe Greece, because nobody else would invest. The fact that Romania isn't interested in builing more bridges over the Danube and that Serbia isn't part of the EU also puts the northern part of Bulgaria in a tight spot. If you want to see what a depopulated country looks like, travel through northern Bulgaria. It looks like the descriptions from the book The World Without Us.

LfLxfxxLxfxx 1y ago

If opposition to the Euro is so massive, can't they simply hold a referendum over it?

akmarinov 1y ago
It’s not, it’s a couple hundred people and it’s mostly old folks that are 60+, as they’re easy to be riled up due to them longing for russian occupation. Also a referendum on the topic was ruled illegal, because it’ll violate the EU accession, where EU adoption is mandatory when criteria are met. Also it’s too late now, it all depends on two votes on the 8th of July by the ministers of finance and the EU parliament. Bulgaria has no way of pulling out now, without doing massive damage to their EU integration, credit score and investors’ interest.
- t0bia_s 1y ago
  It is legal to do referendum about entering EU, but illegal to do referendum about leaving EU? It sounds quite totalitarian.
  - akmarinov 1y ago
    It’s legal to do a referendum about leaving the EU, but no one wants that and it’d be a political suicide to suggest it. Alt right politicians mostly want a referendum against the euro specifically, so that they can get points when the main parties can’t deliver it, they don’t want to exit the EU.
    - t0bia_s 1y ago
      So called "alt right" and similar labelling is common for those who are scared of these ideas and not willing to listen true reasons. We have demonstrations about every month for calls to reform EU structures or leave EU in current bureaucratic form.
saturn_vk 1y ago
The Bulgarian currency has been pegged to the Deutsche Mark for more than twenty years now. This means that we’ve pretty much been using the euro since its inception, and any opposition is just a populist manoeuvring