Statement by a representative of the ‘23 September’ Movement at the conference of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform held in the Netherlands on the occasion of the NATO summit in June 2025.
First of all, I would like to congratulate the participants of this event and to express my joy at the opportunity to be here today. It has always been important for our organization to exchange ideas and experiences with comrades from different countries.
I come from Bulgaria, one of the most clearly visible examples of the consequences of imperialism. Within one generation after the restoration of capitalism in 1989, from a growing socialist country with developed industry, agriculture, energy, a people’s army, cultural life and guaranteed and free world-class health care and education, our country has become a semi-colony of the USA and the countries of Western Europe, Bulgaria’s resources are being exported on the African model. Our homeland is firmly in last place in terms of income among EU countries. Moral and cultural decay prevails among the youth, and the demographic catastrophe we are facing calls into question the existence of the Bulgarian nation in the coming decades. Official institutions are carrying out a rehabilitation of the fascist period in Bulgaria from 1923-1944, and neo-Nazism is spreading among young people. The American embassy became the primary political factor in Bulgaria, playing a decisive role in key decisions, in defining positions on foreign policy issues and in the formation of governments.
These changes happened so fast that Bulgarians couldn’t find enough strength and energy to fight these harmful trends over the last 30 years.
One of the most striking consequences of these changes is the loss of a number of formal signs of sovereignty and the military occupation of the country by the forces of imperialism. This happened after Bulgaria joined NATO (2004), the European Union (2007), and the deployment of US military bases on our territory (2006). At none of these stages was the Bulgarian people even formally asked about their attitude towards these developments. These events took place in an atmosphere of the triumph of imperialism in our country after 1989 and of the implementation of the idea of the ‘end of history’. This also determines the lack of sufficient resistance on the part of the Bulgarian people against their enslavement.
Today, however, the situation is slightly different. The “end of history” was revoked by the author of this theory himself. The dominance of the US on the world stage has been shaken, and contradictions within the imperialist camp are intensifying. The number of countries opposing imperialism is growing, and their importance and economic power are increasing. In a number of places around the world, imperialist forces are suffering defeats. Even the peoples of Eastern European countries are progressively shaking off the shock of the restoration of capitalism and some are beginning to look for different paths of development.
In this situation, the ruling comprador elite in Bulgaria, following the directives of their masters, is preparing to take another anti-popular step in the so-called “Euro-Atlantic integration” – bringing our country into the eurozone. This would bury the last formal remnants of Bulgarian national sovereignty and officially transfer all power in the country into the hands of imperialist institutions. The Bulgarian National Bank would lose control over monetary policy. The country would become even more dependent on the decisions of the European Central Bank. The people will be brought down upon themselves by the miseries of high prices and inflation.
One of the reasons why there is so much insistence on our country joining the euro area at this particular time is the fact that there is not even a formal exit mechanism from this financial union. The European imperialists want to secure their eastern flank in the coming full-scale war against Russia. In this conflict, from the point of view of Western imperialism, Bulgaria represents an insecure ally and a kind of “weak link”. The Bulgarian people, for the most part, do not feel Russia as any kind of enemy or threat. Bulgarians and Russians are linked by the enduring bonds of a common alphabet, close cultures, religious traditions and historical events. The Bulgarian people will always remember and be grateful for Russia’s role in the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1878 and in the liberation from fascism in 1944. That is why, according to all sociological research, the Bulgarians are the people in the EU least in favor of military confrontation with Russia. Since 2014, Bulgaria has seen weekly marches in the centre of the capital expressing solidarity with the resistance of the people of Donbas against the fascist junta that seized power in Kiev after the coup. Immediately after the start of the Special Military Operation in 2022, spontaneous resistance against military aid to Ukraine began in Bulgaria, and various events were held, and continue to be held, demanding the country’s neutrality in this conflict and even support for Russia. The majority of Bulgarians instinctively took the position of anti-imperialism.
In this context, Bulgaria’s planned entry into the euro area is highly unpopular. According to official sociology, nearly 60% of Bulgarians are against such a step. All this has caused the unleashing of a large-scale popular resistance to the preservation of the Bulgarian national currency – the lev. At its core, this is an anti-imperialist struggle that is linked to the country’s geopolitical position and its participation in the world military confrontation.
As part of this campaign, an initiative was created to hold a referendum on the question of Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone. The petition for such a referendum gathered more than 600 000 signatures, which represents about 10% of the country’s adult population. The collection of these signatures was a large-scale effort involving thousands of people from various organizations. However, the Bulgarian institutions, which are dependent on imperialist structures, are currently refusing firmly to ask the Bulgarian people about such an important issue and have submitted a request for a so-called ‘convergence report’ to the European Commission, which should determine whether our country meets the criteria for joining the euro zone. In practice, this is the last step that can be taken.
The sentiment against the introduction of the euro in Bulgaria is so strong that even the country’s president Rumen Radev on 9 May 2025 declared himself in favor of holding a referendum on this issue.
However, the struggle for the Bulgarian people’s right to be heard continues and is intensifying. At the same time, the repressive actions of the authorities, fearing popular discontent, are also increasing. On February 22, 2025, thousands of citizens protested against the country’s planned entry into the eurozone, which led to clashes with the police and the European Commission building in Sofia being attacked and pelted with red paint and incendiary materials. As a result, we witnessed repression unprecedented in Bulgaria’s recent history. Four men were arrested, stripped, beaten, and humiliated for weeks. They were finally released after an international campaign for their release. This once again demonstrates the importance and power of unity among peoples in the struggle against imperialism.
At the time of writing this report, the outcome of the convergence report, which is supposed to determine whether Bulgaria meets the EU’s formal criteria for joining the eurozone, is still unknown. Regardless of what it says, however, the struggle against the euro will continue to be a major political issue in our country in the coming months. In order to wage this struggle successfully, we are striving to build common actions and alliances among the forces in Bulgaria that oppose Bulgaria’s entry into the euro area and the domination of imperialism in our country. In this regard, we are guided by the theoretical basis left to us by the great Bulgarian revolutionary and communist Georgi Dimitrov and his theory of the tactics of the United Front. With the participation of all healthy forces, victory can be achieved.
We believe that the struggle of the Bulgarian people against joining the eurozone is important not only within our country. It is part of the international resistance of the peoples of the world against imperialism and its institutions. The eventual defeat of the forces of reaction in Bulgaria on the issue of adopting the euro would be unprecedented and could become an example to the world of how a relatively small people can oppose the dictates of the EU structures. From there, the struggle to reject the capitalist system as a whole and to build a society in which power belongs to the working people, not to big capital and international financial institutions, could develop on an even larger scale.
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