As Bulgaria progresses on its path to join the eurozone by 2026, false information has been skewing the national conservation around the adoption of the euro.
The pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party, also known as Revival, has been one of the key actors spreading disinformation about the eurozone.
In February its members attempted to storm the headquarters of the European Union’s mission in Sofia, as part of a protest against the eurozone. In response, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen labelled the attack “outrageous.”
Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, but its target date for joining the eurozone has been pushed back multiple times.
Can Europe confiscate personal savings?
Revival MEP Rada Laykova claimed Europe wished to potentially seize money held by citizens in their personal savings accounts and pensions, if they did not spend it within a specific timeframe.
In the same April interview with Bulgarian commentator Martin Karbovski, Laykova added that Europe was discussing using this money to fund military projects.
These claims are false and are part of a wider disinformation narrative which falsely accuses Brussels of wanting to dip into taxpayers’ savings.
Similar allegations began to surface online after the European Commission delivered two major announcements in March — its plans to mobilise €800 billion for European rearmament over the course of the next four years, as well as a proposal to launch a Savings and Investment Union.
In reality, Europeans’ savings are protected by a number of legal mechanisms and cannot be seized indiscriminately.
Meanwhile, the Savings and Investment Union is a project which aims to encourage Europeans to invest their savings in EU assets, rather than leaving them sitting in bank accounts.
“The Revival party is taking real discussions which Europe is having out, taking words out of context from official documents regarding the Savings and Investment Union for instance and mixing this with false information,” Ruslan Stefanov, Chief Economist at the Center for the Study of Democracy told Euronews.
The Revival party leader Kostadin Kostadinov has also alleged that once Bulgaria has joined the eurozone, citizens would lose their savings due to a “different exchange rate” from the current fixed one being implemented.
This claim is false as the Bulgarian Parliament introduced a law on the introduction of the euro, which enshrined a fixed exchange rate between the euro and lev. The law on the introduction of the euro also stipulates that interest rates on loans will not change after entering the Eurozone.
A Russian-linked disinformation campaign
Revival party members are far from the only actors spreading disinformation in Bulgaria about the eurozone and Europe more widely, as a network of Telegram channels, social media accounts and media outlets propagate similar claims.
Pravda, a sprawling network of over 190 websites which peddle pro-Kremlin narratives in dozens of languages plays a key part in spreading false narratives.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Center for Information, Democracy, and Citizenship at the American University in Bulgaria examined more than 640,000 publications on the network between December 2024 and March 2025, revealing that Bulgaria ranked in the top ten countries disproportionately targeted by the Pravda network.
“Russia’s efforts to spread disinformation about the eurozone campaign in Bulgaria are highly coordinated, they are built on a vast and well-funded ecosystem which blend official Russian state media with a web of unofficial actors, which are websites, blogs and influencers in Bulgaria,” Svetoslav Malinov, Analyst for the Centre of Democracy told Euronews.
Why is Bulgaria vulnerable to this disinformation?
Bulgaria was one of the most loyal satellite states of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
This historical relationship, coupled with relatively low education levels in the country compared with the rest of Europe, renders Bulgaria particularly vulnerable to Russian disinformation.
ADVERTISEMENT“A key factor in making anti-eurozone campaigns so effective is the low media literacy in Bulgaria,” said Malinov.
According to the Digital Decade Country Report from 2023, 31% of Bulgarians possess basic digital skills, below the EU average of 54%.
“The Euro as a visible symbol of EU unity becomes an easy and powerful target for such disinformation campaigns from Russia,” concluded Malinov.
