site.btaMedia Review: September 5

POLITICS

A 15-year-old boy named Filip, who was killed by a drunk driver on Saturday, became the 19th child to lose their life in a traffic accident in Bulgaria between January and July 2023, according to the main story in 24 Chasa. Filip was run over by a car while crossing a street in downtown Sofia at nine in the evening. The driver, Petar Todorov, 37, was speeding at a minimum of 80 km/h. His girlfriend and her kid were in the car. The woman knew that Petar had drunk alcohol before getting behind the wheel, but did not try to stop him from driving, because he looked all right, the daily says.

In 2005, Petar was caught drink driving and the case was referred to court. Under the then-effective Penal Code, he could not be held criminally liable, the case was dropped, and he was fined a mere BGN 10.

At 19, the number of children who died in traffic accidents in Bulgaria between January and July 2023 were four more than a year earlier, the paper goes on to say. Those injured increased dramatically by 165 to 743. Three of the kids who lost their lives (including Filip) were crossing a street, one was riding a motorcycle, and the rest were travelling in a car driven by a parent or another family member.

On the first day of the new school year, September 15, police will guard all pedestrian crossings near schools. Later, police will patrol around schools every day at the beginning and the end of classes, 24 Chasa also says.

Filip's death and traffic safety are among the leading topics in most Bulgarian media. They cover an emergency meeting at the Council of Ministers, organized by Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov in connection with the ever more frequent fatal road accidents, including the 15-year-old's death on Saturday.

Emerging from the meeting, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov said that killing someone in a traffic accident under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and even just speeding in such circumstances, should be regarded as murder (intentional killing), SegaBG.com reports. According to Stoyanov, a recently introduced type of punishment consisting in taking away a driver's vehicle on account of drink or drug driving is working well.

The website also says that hundreds of people staged a protest rally outside the Interior Ministry offices in Sofia demanding justice and better road traffic control.

Lawyer Plamen Dimitrov told the morning talk show of BNT1, the main channel of Bulgarian National Television, that the legal distinction between intentional and inadvertent killing is very subtle. Dimitrov said: "The Supreme Court should come up with an interpretative judgment about whether such acts are intentional or inadvertent. [It might be assumed that] when someone is drunk or drugged and gets behind the wheel, they are aware of the publicly dangerous consequences that could ensue."

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Continue the Change (CC) co-leader Kiril Petkov said on Nova TV on Monday evening that there has never been a meeting between GERB leader Boyko Borissov, recently murdered businessman Alexey Petrov and himself.

Petkov's statement comes days after Borissov revealed that the businessman had mediated between CC-Democratic Bulgaria and GERB-UDF to bring them closer together and encourage them to form the present government. Later, Borissov specified that Petrov's role was only "logistical".

Petkov said in the televised interview that a leadership meeting should be held later this week in connection with Petrov's alleged involvement in the formation of the government.

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A group of historians, law experts, journalists and politicians propose a referendum on keeping March 3 (Liberation Day) as the national holiday of Bulgaria, Trud reports in its main story. The proposal comes after the parliamentary majority tabled constitutional amendments which, among other things, suggest establishing May 24 (Alphabet Day) as the national holiday. The pro-March 3 group cited a Gallup International poll showing that 69.3% of Bulgarians want Liberation Day to remain the national holiday.

bTV noted that the campaign was announced weeks after President Rumen Radev stated: "The people's movement will not allow March 3 to be obliterated, our national memory erased, and Bulgarian statehood taken apart." Interviewed on bTV's morning talk show, journalist Yavor Dachkov said: "MEP Petar Vitanov invited me to join the initiative. Not that the president would head a political party; there can be no such thing. I did not ask Mr Vitanov whether the initiative was inspired by the president, but I figured it was. The two things are obviously related, but this is not a political project."

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The completion of three months of functioning of the "assemblage" (the political grouping which is behind the current government but refuses to call itself a "coalition") is covered in an analysis on SegaBG.com. The author says that many people in Bulgaria have put up with the assemblage of GERB-UDF, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, although it has removed the dividing line between the "status-quo" camp and the "change" camp almost completely. After all, it gave the country a regular government, relegating President Rumen Radev's caretaker governments to the past, and created a parliamentary majority which brought Bulgaria's foreign policy back on the Euro-Atlantic track.

The three-party assemblage needs to prove constantly that it is functioning well, the analysis goes. The only reason for its existence is to make certain things happen in this country, such as implementing a radical judicial reform by amending the Constitution, stemming the rise of pro-Russian forces which may push Bulgaria into the Kremlin's orbit, and taking measures to address the economic crisis.

But the leaders of the troika have other things on their minds, too, the author says. Remember that they are politicians, after all. They hanker after fame, power and influence, and also have "circles of companies" to feed. The incumbency actually consists of about a dozen parties, each of which has lots of mouths waiting to be fed. They are caught up in a fierce struggle for positions and appointments, which is the main characteristic feature of the current governance of the country.

The biggest battle is still ahead. "Capturing" the Interior Ministry and the special services has always been the high point in the political drive for power. These institutions control power and information, the key resources of government influence.

The personnel changes in the security sector, initiated by the assemblage, have stalled. The battle is not only between the government and the president but also within the government. It is not unlikely that internal tensions may set the assemblage on fire. This may ruin the big plans about the Constitution, Ukraine and the economy, which brought this strange coalition to power in the first place, the author warns.

ECONOMY & HEALTH

The Bulgarian subsidiary of a French audit firm, which turned out to be unknown to Bulgarian nuclear experts, made a rather quick assessment of the equipment for the Belene nuclear power plant project which the Bulgarian government is negotiating to sell to Ukraine, MediaPool.bg says. A secret report has been compiled, based on which the National Assembly is expected to make decisions.

After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Athens, Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said on August 22 that the assessment of the Belene equipment was in progress. The MediaPool.bg staff spent a whole week trying to find out who was conducting the audit, which is important for the price of the prospective deal, but met with resistance from the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), which was able to avoid the required public procurement procedure in assigning the assessment.

Eventually, BEH told the website that the assessment was made by Mazars Consulting EOOD. It has two Greek managers and is a subsidiary of Mazars OOD, in which French auditing and consulting firm Mazars holds a 90% stake, and Athanasios Petropoulos, the Greek manager of Mazars Consulting, holds 10%.

BEH said that the way the assessor was picked, the amount of money paid to it and the result of the assessment are trade secrets, although the assessment of the Belene assets is a matter of public importance, the website says. A number of nuclear experts approached by the website said they know nothing about Mazars' business. BEH argued that Mazars is a global provider of professional services. Whether or not the company has experience in nuclear energy is obviously unimportant, the story says.

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People have long been producing more than they earn, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria President Plamen Dimitrov said, as quoted in the main story in Duma. Dimitrov said over 40% of all employees earn up to BGN 1,000 per month. The daily recalls that after a heated debate in June, the National Assembly turned down a motion by the BSP for Bulgaria parliamentary group to raise the minimum monthly wage from BGN 780 to at least BGN 850 as of July 1, 2023. Now, the government proposes a minimum wage of BGN 933 as of January 1, 2024.

A few days ago, Socialist MP Georgi Gyokov asked the Prime Minister why he had allowed a breach of the Labour Code, which says that the minimum wage should be set at 50% of the average wage on September 1, 2023, the daily recalls. Gyokov argued that the Prime Minister had two months to push through a relevant decision.

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Asked whether Bulgaria needs more hospitals, Bulgarian Medical Association President Ivan Madzharov says in an interview for 24 Chasa that the problem lies rather in the absence of an objective control mechanism. "There is ex-post control based on documents, which does not practically guarantee high quality," Madzharov says. "Free enterprise to establish new hospitals, to invest in healthcare, is good. Everything built in our country is part of our assets. Those who offer good treatment, quality and conditions should have an interest in improving control every month. Digitization and the single information system should be used to ensure that hospitals are working well."

Madzharov notes that, according to some people, medical services in some places are worse than in larger cities, but this is not so. "Remote areas, too, have doctors who follow the novelties and are trying to adopt new technologies," he says, adding that there are very good doctors in both private and state-run hospitals.

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There is growing demand for houses on the outskirts of larger cities such as Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna, Trud reports. This is partly explained by the fact that you can buy a nice house in a suburban area for the price of a three-room apartment in a big city. In the case of the capital Sofia, this means spending between EUR 250,000 and EUR 350,000 on either type of property. The daily says that after the COVID pandemic, many people who seek newbuilt housing are trying to achieve a balance between being close to nature and leading a dynamic life. Over 70% of home buyers want to be close to nature, according to a survey conducted by a real estate company.