The Duran Podcast - Bulgaria enters EURO

Episode Date: January 4, 2026

Bulgaria enters EURO

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Bulgaria in the euro. Well, they didn't want it, by the way. Let me just say they didn't want it. They didn't want it. The polls had 70% of the people did not want it. It's not wanted. Exactly. I mean, this is, well, actually, this is the first thing to say.

I mean, Bulgaria did not want to join the euro. The Bulgarian people did not join the euro. There's never been a vote on it in the sense of a referendum or anything of that kind. There's been no stability in. governments in Bulgaria since 20. I think there's been eight prime ministers since 2020. There is a government crisis underway in Bulgaria now, the prime minister whose government was navigating Bulgaria into the euro. He's just resigned and there's major corruption scandal underway in Bulgaria and there's major protests. The president of Bulgaria, who's,

fulfills a mostly ceremonial role, but he seems to be deeply skeptical about this whole idea too. And yet, in spite of all of that, in spite of the fact that there's no consensus within Bulgaria about joining the euro, they're joining the euro. And this is going to be a disaster for Bulgaria, because Bulgaria is going to swap a soft currency, the LEV, for a harder currency, which is the euro, to the extent that Bulgaria has been able to remain competitive by allowing devaluations of its currency, it's no longer going to be in a position to do that. It's going to trigger all the usual things that we've seen across the Eurozone in de-industrialization

processes. We see them in Italy, we see them in France, we saw them in Greece, obviously, and now we're going to start to see them on Bulgaria as well. And, you know, Bulgaria had an industrial base of a sort. I mean, it did actually. It had a significant industrial base. But as is going to erode away. And all of this basically pushed on Bulgaria by the EU leadership. And of course, its collaborators within Bulgaria, who are, of course, to be found within the state bureaucracy, the certain sections of the business elite who believe that they will benefit from this, who are backed by the usual cluster of NGOs that exist in these countries, all of these countries, and who have a lot grip

of this deeply unstable and deeply discredited political system. So Bulgaria is joining the euro, and to repeat, a point we've made in program after program. The Eurozone is Hotel California. If you join, you cannot leave. There is no way out. If you lose control of your currency, your economy is controlled from Brussels and Frankfurt. They can switch off the money, as they did in Greece, and they can do that from one day to the next, and they've shown that they both can, and they will.

So, unless there is a total collapse of the Eurozone, which we'll talk about in a moment, Bulgaria brought into this against its will is now trapped inside it. and it's going to suffer all of the problems that countries that join the Eurozone experience. So the likelihood is that we'll have for a couple of years the usual massive consumption speculative boom. People are going to tank up with debt because they'll be drawing on the Euro credit card. Governments will be able to spend on the Euro credit card and all of that. we've discussed that the system is very corrupt. It's Bulgarians say that it's corrupt.

So you can imagine that all sorts of people in Bulgaria are going to make themselves very rich on this because they'll be able to borrow in euros, they'll be able to do all kinds of things, which up to now having a weak currency was difficult for them. Debt levels in Bulgaria will rise. They will rise at a domestic level. they will rise at a state level, they will rise at a private level.

They will, for a short time, a couple of years, be a big consumption boom. We'll be hearing about what a tremendous economic success story. Bulgaria is. We'll get all that those articles in the financial times. Sooner or later, it'll all come to a crash. People will see that, in fact, the underlying realities in Bulgaria have been of a massive economic, deterioration of de-industrialization, a change in the structure of the Bulgarian economy, you will nonetheless get a fervent group of people like you see in Greece,

who are committed to the euro because from their point of view, the euro is extremely beneficial for their own business interests. You will also find that older people will want to stick by the euro because they get their pensions paid in euros. And they will form a significant pro-EU constituency. And young people will leave because they will find that there is really nothing for them in the country in Bulgaria. And Bulgaria already understand has a major demographic problems and they're likely to get well. We've seen the story in Greece. It's going to be repeated in Bulgaria.

So that's the future for Bulgaria until the Eurozone, until the day comes when the Eurozone itself collapses. I think you left one step out in the formula that we've both lived through, which is that once everyone loads up on debt and you get all the articles about the boom and the miracle that is Bulgaria, then the crash comes. and that's when Christine Lagarde and the IMF and all of these guys come into the picture to buy everything

up on the cheap which is exactly what we saw in Greece and Cyprus and actually we're still living through it exactly exactly

I mean there will be a plunder a massive a shakedown and a fire sale of state assets not just state assets all kinds of assets

and you know the outsiders will come in and they'll take whatever they can. Speaking of Christine Lagarde, he's not directly connected to the story, but there's a big article today in the Financial Times, which says that her actual salary is 50% bigger than the one that she's declared. But anyway, maybe, of course it is. Of course it is. Of course it is. It should be, of course, because as we know, she was a brilliant manager of the

IMF and a brilliant manager of the European Central Bank, and she had a completely spotless reputation as Minister of Finance for France. So, I mean, you know, it's absolutely proper that she gets the rewards that she deserves. But no, I believe it's tax-free too, isn't it? Tax-free, absolutely, exactly. So as I said, she will, she will, she will, she will, she will, she will no doubt be there. Many others will be there too. And all our friends, all the usual people that we know, who we know very well from Greece, there will be cashing in, whatever it is that Bulgaria has. And by the way, it has quite a lot. Some of it is very rich agriculturally. As I said, it's got some interesting industries. It has a significant arms industry, by the way,

just a second. Well, the interesting part about being in the euro, the other benefit for, for the globalists that it adds is that it prevents Bulgaria from any type of dissension. You know, Bulgaria, there's no more fear, not Bulgaria, which is a country, a society, which is friendly to, let's say, Russia, and even to China. I mean, it's always been open. And it is a place of crossroads. I mean, the history of Bulgaria, which goes many, many thousands years, thousands of years back. I mean, you go to Sofia, you see it, you live it, the history of Bulgaria.

It is a crossroads, and it is open to trade and to various cultures and societies. That goes now in that controlling the currency means that even if Bulgaria is even thinking about saying, you know what, that Orban and Fizzo and Babich guy, they kind of have a point. Maybe we should wind down Project Ukraine because it's making a mess of things. well, Ursula is going to say, really, well, maybe you're not going to get any euros in your ATMs, right? I mean, it's over. It's over for them. As far as any type of dissension is done, it's finito.

Absolutely. That is absolutely correct. And of course, you described Bulgaria absolutely correctly sentiments in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a country I know very well, by the way. I have, through my brother, I have family contacts there. So, I mean, I've been to Bulgaria. I know the sentiments there, and you're absolutely correct. The people, Bulgarians, I mean, not every Bulgarian, but mostly are fairly sympathetic to Russia.

The language Bulgarian and Russian are reasonably similar. They can understand each other up to a point. And beyond that, they're Orthodox countries and the Slav countries. And Russia was, of course, the country which in the wars of the 1870s enabled Bulgaria to achieve independence from the Ottomans, which is something that is very well remembered there. So there's never been a hostility towards Russia, as there is in some, as there are in some other places. Even during the communist era, there was quite a lot of pro-Russian sentiment and standard still there. So, you know, I don't, this is obviously something that from now on exactly the reason that you said is going to become impossible. You might have a government that is elected that has massive hostility to the whole anti-Bussian project.

But as you rightly said, Ursula and Kaya Kallas and indeed Christian Lagarde, they can turn off the tap whenever they choose. All right. Anything else you want to add to this? Well, there is, of course, the other side, which is, and I sent you an article about it from the British media, the Daily Telegraph, Matthew Lynn, to be precise, which is that ultimately what the Europeans have done is that they brought another uncompetitive deeply, deeply indebted or rather highly likely to be even more indebted, unstable country into the Eurozone. given that the Eurozone itself is looking increasingly ragged. I mean, the economy, the general European economy, has been stagnating now for decades, largely, and I want to stress this, because of the euro. The euro made Germany competitive, but no other country within the EU.

It made, at the price of making all of the other EU countries increasingly uncompetitive. And even German competitiveness has now been. been lost because of the economic war with Russia, the energy sanctions. We've discussed this all in many programs. I don't need to go over it. Anyway, the point is, the Eurozone is a stagnating economic system. Debt levels are rising right across the Eurozone. Italy is in massive debt. France is in massive debt. Germany, because of nuts, is becoming increasingly indebted as well. a massive debt-fueled plan that Mouths has, which we've discussed in many, many programs. And now into this, you bring another economy, which quite plausibly is going to find itself

in severe economic difficulties in five, ten, whatever it is, years, time. The Eurozone is loading problems onto itself. and if there is another crisis in Bulgaria, similar to the Greek crisis, the Eurozone is in a much weaker position to deal with it than it was when the Greek crisis happened, because Germany won't be able to come up with the tens of billions, hundreds of billions that were needed at that time to deal with the 2011 crisis, which wasn't just Greece, it was all across southern. Europe. It doesn't have that enormous fiscal reserve that it used to. So it could be, it may be, probably it will be, a further step, this inclusion of Bulgaria into the ultimate undermining and collapse of the Eurozone. But this is going to take a while to happen. And if I'm going to say it myself, I don't believe that it is Bulgaria, small Bulgaria, that is going to bring the Eurozone

down in the end. It's going to be the crisis in the much bigger countries, Italy, Germany, and France, perhaps Germany first and foremost. All right, we will end it there, the durand.com. We're on X. We're on Rumble. We're on Telegram. Go to Duran shop, pick up some merch, and we are also on Substack as well. All the links are in the description box down below. Take care.