Bulgaria MPs to Enjoy Higher Salaries after Stealthy Move

An unidentified member of Bulgaria’s parliament is pictured here during a plenary session, reading an article about the price of the most delicious strawberries on the market in a local newspaper. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgarian lawmakers, who are best known for their infamous habit of playing truant, have increased their salaries, rather on the sly.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov froze last year the salaries of top politicians in Bulgaria at their levels from the end of 2009, despite the cabinet's decision to up the minimum monthly wage in Bulgaria in May, 2012 – from BGN 270 to BGN 290.

Borisov backed his belt-tightening stance with the difficult situation globally and in Bulgaria. The imposed moratorium however expired at the end of the year.

According to the Parliamentary Code, the salary of Members of the Parliament equals three times the average monthly salary in the country's public sector for the last month of the latest quarter.

The average salary in December 2011 was BGN 853, according to latest data of the statistics office.

That means that MPs, whose fixed salaries range between BGN 2 196 and BGN 2 259, will add an extra BGN 360 each month, regardless of the numerous bonuses they get.

Borisov has a monthly wage of EUR 1 500, which he says is way less than the one of his western counterparts.

Internet forums in Bulgaria are overflowing with indignation at the news mainly because local MPs are famous for non-attending parliamentary sessions. For almost a decade already the black list has been topped by the leader of the ethnic Movement for Rights and Freedoms Ahmed Dogan, who attended no more than ten parliamentary sessions over a period of four years.

The current parliament, which held its first session at the beginning of July 2009 with the center-right GERB party making up 116 MPs in the 240-seat unicameral national assembly, vowed to put an end to the vicious job-skipping practice, but to no avail.

Members of Bulgarian parliament have always had the habit of going after their private business instead of working in the plenary hall and obviously have no intention to shake it off.

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