About 57% of Bulgarians are against euro adoption, while just 26% want to join the eurozone next year, a poll carried out by Myara agency showed on February 1.

The poll was released after the new government headed by Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov gave mixed signals about its plans regarding adoption of the European single currency. It now looks increasingly unlikely that Bulgaria will enter the eurozone by its target date of January 2026. 

Asked whether the euro should be adopted at any point, 41.4% of respondents said it should never be adopted. 30.8% of people would like euro adoption to be delayed, while just 25.7% of respondents think it should be adopted as of January 1, 2026.

Myara’s survey was carried out on January 29-31 among 801 people.

Elderly people are more worried about the switch to the euro, which, according to Myara, could be connected to concerns regarding Bulgaria’s sovereignty, nostalgia for the past, the lack of adequate information, campaigns against the euro and fears about higher inflation.

In Croatia, the latest country to join the eurozone, residents complained about a hike in prices during the switch from the kuna to the euro. 

Although Zhelyazkov has said the country has met all requirements for the eurozone entry and that euro adoption would be the top priority for his government, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said that Bulgaria is yet to meet the price stability criterion. Sofia thus plans to delay asking for convergence reports from the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB). 

Petkova said at the end of January that, according to the government’s estimations, Bulgaria still does not meet the price stability criterion, as the latest Eurostat data shows inflation in the country is 0.1 of a percentage point higher than required. Bulgaria’s current average inflation is 2.6% versus 2.5% required to fulfil the price stability criterion.

However, critics of the government suggested that the inflation was an excuse for the new ruling coalition comprising Gerb, the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), populist There Are Such People (ITN) and Democracy, Rights and Freedoms (DPS-DPS) to sabotage the country’s entry to the eurozone.