As Bulgaria continues its path to join the Eurozone by 2026, misinformation is distorting national protections regarding the adoption of the Euro.
The pro-Russian Vazrazdane Party, also known as the Revival, is one of the key actors spreading disinformation about the Eurozone.
In February, its members tried to raid 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 named the attack “outrageous.”
Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, but its target date for participation in the Eurozone has been pushed back many times.
Can Europe confiscate personal savings?
Revival Mep Rada Laykova argued that if they were not spending it within a certain period, Europe would like to potentially seize the funds that citizens hold in their personal savings accounts and pensions.
In an interview in the same April with Bulgarian commentator Martin Karbovski, Laykova added that Europe is discussing how it will use this money to fund military projects.
These claims are false and part of a broader disinformation story that Brussels falsely accuses him of immersing himself in taxpayer savings.
Similar allegations began to go online after the European Commission made two major announcements in March. It is a proposal to mobilize 800 billion euros for European re-contract over the next four years, and a proposal to launch a savings and investment coalition.
In reality, European savings are protected by many legal mechanisms and cannot be seized indiscriminately.
Meanwhile, the Savings Investment Union is a project aimed at encouraging Europeans to invest their savings in EU assets rather than sitting in bank accounts.
“The revival party is doing real discussions that Europe has made, removing the word from the context, for example from the official documents on the Savings Investment Union, and mixing this with misinformation,” Ruslan Stefanov, chief economist at the Centre for Democracy Studies, told Euronows.
Revival Party leader Costadin Kostadinoff also claims that after Bulgaria joins the eurozone, citizens will lose their savings due to “different exchange rates” from the current fixed ones being implemented.
This claim is false as the Bulgarian Parliament introduced legislation on the introduction of the euro. The euro introduction law also provides that interest rates on loans will not change once they enter the eurozone.
Russia-linked disinformation campaign
Members of the Revival Party are far from the only actors who can spread disinformation in Bulgaria about the Eurozone and Europe, as telegram channels, social media accounts and media outlet networks propagate similar claims.
Pravda is a vast network of over 190 websites that learn Pro Kremlin stories in dozens of languages, and plays a key role in spreading false stories.
The Centre for Information, Democracy and Citizenship at American University in Bulgaria surveyed over 640,000 publications in the network between December 2024 and March 2025, revealing that Bulgaria, disproportionately targeted by the Pravda network, was ranked among the top 10 countries.
“Russia’s efforts to spread disinformation about the eurozone campaign in Bulgaria have been highly coordinated and are based on a vast, funded ecosystem that fuses official Russian state-run media with Bulgarian websites, blogs, influencer webs and Bulgarian websites and influencer webs.”
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 the relatively low level of education within the country compared to other parts of Europe, makes Bulgaria particularly vulnerable to Russian disinformation.
“A key factor in making the anti-Eurozone campaign extremely effective is the low media literacy in Bulgarian,” Malinov said.
According to the 2023 Digital Decade Country Report, 31% of Bulgarians have basic digital skills, which are below the EU average of 54%.
“The euro as a visible symbol of EU unity will be a simple and powerful target for such disinformation campaigns from Russia,” Malinov concluded.
