site.btaMedia Review: May 8

The topic of elections in Bulgaria and North Macedonia dominates Wednesday’s news media.

POLITICS

24 Chasa’s front-page article tell the story of how, according to journalist Lyubcho Neshkov, Bulgaria’s first democratically elected president, Jeliu Jelev, saved Macedonia from being divided between Greece and Serbia. The daily also has an inside-page analysis by journalist Boyko Vassilev on the topic of North Macedonia’s elections and Skopje - Sofia relations since 1990. Vassilev argues that talking against Bulgaria has been part of every election campaign in North Macedonia for 35 years now; it is like a requirement. Sofia has used any approach imaginable in its attitude towards Skopje – from friendliness and cooperation through indifference to confrontation - but with no result. However, talking against Bulgaria to win elections cannot continue if North Macedonia wishes to join the EU; respect to all Member States will have to be shown, Vassilev argues.

Telegraf too has an analysis of the elections in North Macedonia, reading that the winner in the presidential elections depends on the votes of the Albanians.

Dnevnik.bg has an interview about the elections with Macedonian economist Marjan Petreski, Vice-Dean of Research and Scientific Cooperation at University American College Skopje’s School of Business Economics and Management. According to the expert, despite the focus on the issues with Bulgaria in the election campaign, what matters the most for voters is the economy. What is important for people is who will improve their lives, he adds. 

On Bulgarian National Television’s morning show, journalist Milena Milotinova commented that the election campaign in North Macedonia was based on anti-Bulgarian messages. The last debate between the presidential candidates was entirely focused on Bulgaria, instead of the candidates presenting their vision for their own countries’ future. The anti-Bulgaria talk was sharper than in previous elections, Milotinova argued. Politicians in North Macedonia talk about a revision of the negotiating framework circumventing the issue with Bulgaria, regardless of the fact that it is impossible to re-negotiate with the EU conditions that have been approved by 27 Member States plus North Macedonia itself. There is also talk about annulment of the Treaty of Friendship, Goodneighbourliness and Cooperation with Bulgaria, the journalist added. That treaty is not observed, she noted.

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On bTV’s morning show, sociologist Boryana Dimitrova presented the findings of an Alpha Research opinion poll on voters’ attitudes, conducted between April 25 and May 2 among 1,000 adult Bulgarians across the country. If the snap general elections were held today, the parties to make it into the next National Assembly would be: GERB-UDF with 25.4% of the votes, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria with 17.5%, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) with 17.5%, Vazrazhdane with 14.6%, the Bulgarian Socialist Party with 8.5%, and There Is Such a People with 5.2%. For the European Parliament elections, the distribution of votes would be as follows: GERB-UDF with 25.1% of the votes, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria with 18.5%, Vazrazhdane with 14.8%, the MRF with 14.4%, the BSP with 8.0%, and There is Such a People with 4.8%. A relatively low voter turnout is expected on June 9, with some 40% going to vote for MPs and around 35%, for MEPs. According to Dimitrova, three factors reduce Bulgarians’ wish to exercise their voting right on June 9: the frequent elections that lead to no quality change in the situation; the series of public scandals before, during, and after the rotation in the regular government of Nikolay Denkov; and the elections being at the start of the summer season. 

On Nova TV’s morning show, Iva Lazarova of the Institute for Public Environment Development, commented that given the attitude of parties towards voters, the voter turnout on June 9 is expected to be relatively low, similarly to what was observed in the last parliamentary elections. Running in the elections are parties that have existed for at least ten years and newer formations such as There Is Such a People, the support for which has shrunk quite fast within several months, Lazarova said. 

On Bulgarian National Radio, political expert Lyubomir Stefanov commented on the candidate lists for the June 9 elections. The Bulgarian voters are recovering from their drunken state, he argued, noting that with so many elections within a short period of time, the voters are beginning to look more realistically on elections. “Waiting for messiahs is actually very romantic, wonderful for a film script or a fairy tale, but it is not a source of solutions in politics, rather of more headaches. That is why we seem to now be focusing on the available variety,” he explained. Political representatives in Bulgaria get used up very fast without voters realizing that there is nowhere to get new ones. It is necessary and healthy for politicians to periodically give themselves a break by taking a step back and not running in various elections. That is why Stefanov does not see a problem in the absence of Mariya Gabriel from GERB’s candidate list for the European Parliament elections.

The main topic of Bulgarian National Television’s morning show was the June 9 elections in Bulgaria. The top-of-the-list MEP candidates of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Nikola Minchev and Kristian Vigenin, respectively, were in the studio to present the strategy of their parties for the election campaign.

Duma writes on its front page that the BSP Tuesday registered its candidate lists for both the European Parliament and general elections on June 9. BSP leader Korneliya Ninova is quoted as calling on people to trust her party in the elections, because the BSP did not lie to them and is the only party that did not enter any agreements and coalitions in the name of power. In her words, the BSP’s candidates for MEPs and MPs combine professionalism, experience, energy, and youth. Among them are proven experts in healthcare, economy, education, finance, law, and various fields of public life. “The future government should be a non-party one, national and programme-based, with the support of the parliamentary forces. For the BSP, the top task remains the increase of incomes and the fight with inequalities,” she said.

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Telegraf has an interview with counter-terrorism expert Hristo Smolenov, who warns that there is a real risk of a nuclear war. 

ECONOMY

24 Chasa has an interview with Krassimir Valchev, Chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Education and Science, who talks about the personnel shortage in various professions. There are 45 new engineers per 100 retiring ones, he gives an example.

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Trud’s front-page article reads that the tax for driving an older vehicle will be increased by up to 78% to limit their use. This is envisaged in a draft integrated plan in the field of energy and climate that was elaborated by the regular government of Nikolay Denkov and submitted to the European Commission for approval. The document also envisages the promotion of energy efficient vehicles with low emissions through the introduction of progressive income taxation, the ban on old vehicles in city centres, and allowing electric cars in bus lanes.

Trud has an interview with financial expert Rumen Gulubinov, who argues that Bulgaria should introduce higher taxes for those with big incomes. According to him, the snap elections on June 9 might slow down Bulgaria’s entry in the eurozone but not by much; adopting the euro in 2025 is still possible, be it from the start or middle of the year. However, the frequent parliamentary elections and lack of a stable government put at risk the funding under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the expert notes.

Segabg.com presents research by the Expert Club for Economics and Politics showing that Bulgaria is the only EU Member State to have hastily introduced the global minimum tax of 15% on big companies with turnover exceeding EUR 750 million a year, without debates and a grace period. All 18 Member States who have already introduced the 15% tax have also introduced exceptions, but not Bulgaria. The Baltic countries, Poland, Slovakia, Portugal, Malta, and Cyprus have even postponed the implementation of the global tax rules by six years. According to the analysis, this puts Bulgaria in an unfavourable position in terms of attracting foreign investment and encouraging leading Bulgarian industrial groups to grow internationally. The experts advise Bulgaria to ease the tax.

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Telegraf’s front-page story goes that Bulgarians spent BGN 1.5 million an hour for Easter. 

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Capital.bg reports that the Simobotics startup has created Bulgaria’s first autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that can transform depending on its application (AMRs are used in manufacturing, storage, and transport of goods). The mass production of MITO will begin next year in the town of Mizia (Northwestern Bulgaria), where the company’s production base is located. The capacity for now is 100 to 200 robots a year with potential for expansion. The main market will be Europe, then Asia. MITO’s creator, Engineer Georgi Georgiev, told Capital that the product was developed within six months by him and a main team of six engineers; 60 specialists participated indirectly. The investment amounted to BGN 200,000, provided by Georgiev himself. MITO works with a battery that allows the robot to work all day on a 12-minute charge. 

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Nova TV’s morning show presented data from their own check on Bulgaria’s railway transport, prompted by the increase of ticket prices as of Tuesday. In 2023, Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) serviced 22 million passengers, nearly 20% of them at the Sofia Railway Station, followed by the stations in Plovdiv, Varna, Pernik, and Pleven. Out of all trains, 9% were delayed with an average of 33 minutes. The delays were most often due to bad weather conditions and accidents on the railway route; rarely were there problems with the trains themselves. One-fifth of the passengers chose railway transport because there was no alternative; the same share chose to travel by train because they considered it the most convenient mode of transportation. Ten percent of the passengers travelled by train because they saw it as the safest option.