Prices like opinions can be prone to change. Bulgaria wants to join the Euro zone amidst far-right domestic opposition. However, dramatic protests in Sofia against the currency contrast with the European Union's high acceptance of the common currency.
Vandalism.
Far-right opponents of Bulgaria adopting the common European currency attacked the offices of the European Union's representation on Saturday in Sofia, causing shock and drawing condemnation.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that there were "outrageous scenes in Sofia where our EU office has been vandalised".
"In Europe, we exercise the right to demonstrate in a peaceful way. Violence and vandalism are never the answer," she added.
The Bulgarian government on its official Facebook page "firmly condemned" the attack.
The protest, organised by the pro-Russian nationalist party Vazrazhdane (Bulgarian for: revival), escalated into vandalism when demonstrators attempted to storm the building and a Molotov cocktail briefly set fire to the front door. Windows on the first floor were broken and the building was attacked with eggs and red paint.
The crowd burned effigies of EU leaders including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. Six people were arrested and ten police lightly injured as the crowd was dispersed with tear gas. Some 2,000 to 3,000 people took part.
'Brutal provocation' but a sedate contrast.
So far so dramatic.
However, the actual process of joining the 20-member Euro area is complicated, technical, and extremely drawn out.
In the days after the violent scenes on Sofia's streets on Saturday, the Bulgarian government's steady execution of the next bureaucratic step to join the Euro zone, was a sedate contrast.
On Monday, Sofia requested the Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) to prepare convergence tests for Bulgaria after data in January showed the inflation rate to be 2.6 percent. With inflation low enough, the country had met the last criteria, price stability, for joining the Euro zone.
The European Union designed economic entry conditions to ensure that an EU country's economy is ready to adopt the Euro and can integrate smoothly into the Euro zone without risk of disruption to the country or the currency alliance as a whole.
As well as inflation and price stability, other key measures include sound public finances, exchange-rate stability, and long-term interest rates, to assess the durability of the transition to the Euro.
The Bulgarian government wants to join the currency by January 2026. Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told reporters that he expects the convergence report to be ready by June 2025.
The attack on the EU office in Sofia however underlined how opponents feel about the move and their vulnerability to exploitation. Anti-Euro rallies organised by Vazrazhdane date back to at least December 2022 and the party has campaigned for a referendum on joining the currency.
Former Bulgarian prime minister Kiril Petkov and Co-chair of the Continue the Change party alleged that the instigator behind the protest was the Kremlin.
Another influential opposition politician, MRF New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski, described the incident as a "brutal provocation by a gang of fascists around [Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin] Kostadinov".
Four days after the EU offices were attacked, Kostadinov told the Bulgarian parliament that the "Euro-Atlantic mob" of the Bulgarian government was trampling on the public's wishes.
Kostadinov added that the government "got what you deserved on Saturday, and I want to warn you that this protest was just the beginning".
How bad can the "Teuro" be?
Wary of price increases, Bulgarians as a whole are not in a rush to join the Euro. According to an opinion poll conducted by the Bulgarian Myara institute at the end of January, more than half of adults (57.1 percent) are against the introduction of the Euro "in principle", while 39 percent are in favour. Only 25.7 percent support joining the Euro zone in 2026.
But amidst all this drama, how is the Euro zone's newest member Croatia faring? The country adopted the Euro in January 2023, amid a lot of public debate about price increases and the loss of monetary sovereignty. Croatia's entry occurred in the midst of an uptick in price increases, not only in Croatia, but across Europe, which started much earlier and had no connection with the transition to the Euro.
Although official statistics show that the transition had a very limited impact on prices, opponents of the Euro blame it for high inflation. This is despite the fact that inflation is much higher in comparable countries that have not adopted the Euro, such as Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
However, arguments that the Euro is not to blame are poorly received by the public. According to the latest polling for the EU from December last year, Croatia is the only Euro zone country in which more people think the currency is bad for their country than it is good - 44 percent of respondents in Croatia think the Euro is good for their country, and 46 percent think it is bad.
This compares with an average support of the common currency across all Euro zone countries of 71 percent.
Hostility to the common currency is nothing new. The Euro's arrival 25 years ago wasn't love at first sight, with many citizens even then perceiving the switchover as an unwelcome price hike.
In Germany the currency was nicknamed the "Teuro", a pun on the word "teuer" (meaning expensive) and Euro.
But attitudes have softened over time in the EU, won over by the ease of travelling and doing business across borders, without having to worry about foreign exchange fluctuations.
Sweden, for many years sceptical towards the Euro, has also seen attitudes change. A referendum in 2003 ended in 56 percent voting no to the Euro - a figure that went up to almost 80 per cent negative in opinion polls during the Euro zone financial crisis.
Opinion polls in 2024 now show a steep rise in positive sentiment, going from 23 per cent in 2023 to 34 per cent last year, as a weak Swedish krona, hit by the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine, made it more expensive for Swedes to travel abroad.
The Euro outside the EU.
Evidence of the currency's advantages from non-EU members is also telling. The Euro has been widely used in Albania for many years. The Balkan country is in the process of joining the EU and Albania mostly exports to markets using the European common currency. Many Albanians living abroad also send money home in Euros.
Non-EU member Kosovo has also used the Euro since 2002, despite some members of the currency union not even recognising the country.
Want to hear a final quirk of the switch to Euro? Germans are still handing in their Deutschmark for the common currency nearly 25 years later. Germany is one of six countries - along with Austria, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - that still allow their former currencies to be exchanged for Euro notes.
(The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, ANSA, ATA, BTA, dpa, HINA, TT)
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