site.btaMedia Review: January 11

HEADLINES 

Not a single topic dominates the print media on Thursday. The morning programmes of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and bTV host guests discussing the future of the Sofia Municipal Council, which does not yet have a chairperson. All morning programmes (including Nova TV) report on Parliament’s first working day for the year, featuring live interviews with MPs in the National Assembly, and studio discussions on the upcoming rotation between Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and his deputy Mariya Gabriel for the prime ministerial position. 

The Bulgarian National Radio had interviews with experts and state representatives on the topics of energy, tourism, environmentalism, politics, and migration in relation to Bulgaria’s Schengen accession for air and sea travel.   

The top story in Telegraph is on housing prices in Bulgaria, discussed in an interview with Dobromir Ganev, chairman of the National Real Estate Association. The most prominent headline on the front page of Trud notes the start of the 2023 annual income tax return campaign of the National Revenue Agency. Duma’s front page story is on the bust of Russian statesman and diplomat Count Nikolay Ignatyev in Varna's City Garden, which was recently ripped from its pedestal, the daily quotes the regional Bulgarian Socialist Party structures condemning the act. The biggest headline on the front page of 24 Chasa reads that Sofianites spend on an annual basis an average of 205 hours in their cars during peak traffic hours. 

ENERGY 

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) MP Georgi Svilenski on the morning programme of Nova TV said that for the first time in 30 years Bulgaria is importing electricity already in the start of January. 

Deputy Energy Minister Iva Petrova told BNR that the security of the Bulgarian energy system is guaranteed. “No worries about lack of supply or running out of electricity,” she said. Petrova noted that Bulgaria is part of Europe's electricity system, where there is a constant movement of electricity from one system to another and directions change depending on supply and demand. She highlighted the priority of rationalizing consumption and maximizing energy savings. 

ECONOMY

The highlight of Telegraph‘s interview with Dobromir Ganev is that property prices are freezing. Postponed purchases drive down home prices, a survey of brokers showed, the daily writes. Ganev says price increases have fallen from 16% to about 10%. According to him, the price increase will stabilize between 5% and 10%. 

POLITICS 

BSP MP Svilenski commented on Bulgaria’s Schengen accession for air and sea borders on the morning programme of Nova TV by saying that businesses will not get what they expect from the accession and there will be new refugees for Bulgarian citizens. “No matter how much it is denied, people in Haskovo and Harmanli are worried", Svilenski said, stressing that refugee centres are full, and a new influx of migrants is expected.

Former deputy interior minister Milen Keremedchiev commented on the topic for BNR and said that the migrant pressure is a must topic of discussion of European governments. According to him, no such thing as “partial” Schengen accession exists, and Romania and Bulgaria are full members of the Schengen area, despite being admitted only for air and sea travel for now. Keremedchiev stressed that "there is no danger that Bulgaria will turn into a refugee centre, a ghetto, because this cannot practically happen". According to him, the Dublin agreement does not work and cannot work. He also forecasted the rise of far-right, populist parties’ rise around the issue. 

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Constitutional expert Ekaterina Mihaylova, lecturer at the New Bulgarian University, told bTV that the constitutional amendments allowing MPs and ministers to have dual citizenship was adopted at the last minute and was not thought through. She noted that the argument of the advocates of the changes is that “with EU membership we all have European citizenship”, which she said is not “real” citizenship, and while people with dual citizenship can become municipal councillors, dual citizenship on the government level is problematic. Mihaylova stressed that even after the constitutional amendments were adopted, there are positions for which dual citizenship is not allowed. She questioned the logic of restricting judges but allowing MPs and ministers. Regarding the caretaker government, she is adamant that the best solution is to drop this institution from the Bulgarian Constitution altogether.

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Vanya Grigorova commented on the morning programme of bTV on Sofia Municipal Council’s leadership problem – the Council has been failing to elect a chairperson since the local elections held on October 29, 2023. The main takeaway from her comments is that “there is no risk for Sofia to stop working”. The Council is having a sitting on Thursday, but just as Grigorova said, participants will discuss nominations and delay leadership election once again. According to her, the most natural thing is the chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council to be a representative of the opposition.

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Dnevnik.bg quotes former prosecutor general Ivan Geshev in an interview for Bulgaria’s Radio Free Europe, where he comments on recent and rundown political events in the country. In the news piece entitled "’I cannot say he is a phenomenon’. What Geshev says about Peevski, the Corporate Commercial Bank and Borissov”, Geshev says that he “knows everything about everyone in this country”, and that he sees himself as "an instrument in the hands of God" with which he "does the things he thinks are right." Half a year ago the “instrument” was dismissed from his position as prosecutor general, the media writes. The interview’s highlights quote Geshev saying that “Bulgarian politicians command the judiciary, and this is a fact” and that he himself was appointed prosecutor general by political parties at the time. Commenting on the “assassination attempt” against him on May 1, 2023, when a blast took place near Geshev’s motorcade, the former said “I suppose that Borissov [GERB leader, former prime minister] stands behind it. He [Borissov] is in some way related to the whole array of events”. Geshev also commented on Delyan Peevski, potential leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and party floor leader in Parliament, also sanctioned by the United States for corruption under the Global Magnitsky Act, who has lately become more prominent on the political scene in contrast to his figurative presence in the past. Despite denying his “phenomenality”, Geshev says about Peevski that from being the most hated man he had “undeniably” become the “flagman of euro-atlantic values”. On the work of the special services in Bulgaria, the former prosecutor general says that “they have always been subordinate to political power, and they eventually start acting when certain politicians fall from power and start testifying”. The article’s full text outlines three topics: the assassination attempt; the bankruptcy of the Corporate Commercial Bank and Peevski’s role in it; and Geshev reiterating his statement that Bulgarian politicians are “political trash”, which had gotten him accused of undermining the prestige of the judiciary. On his personal life, Geshev said that he is currently unemployed and that he lives on funds from his "wife, friends, money left over from the prosecution service".