site.btaMedia Review: July 24

HIGHLIGHTS

No single issue is in the focus of attention of the news media on Wednesday. They write about extreme weather, the price of electricity for businesses, a Q&A session of Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev on social media and the presidential race in the US, among others.

The cover story in 24 Chasa is about Russian home owners “running a sale of properties on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast” as a result of the sanctions against Moscow. The buyers are lawyers, doctors and Ukrainians. Properties are offered between EUR 900 and 1,500 per sq m, and the Russians are making a profit as prices have soared since their purchase. The story continues on the second and third page with more analysis of the real estate market (deals in Sofia take longer to finalized, prices in Plovdiv and Varna are growing faster than those in Sofia).

Trud leads with a story about an increasing incidence of lightnings in Bulgaria. The story says that “warming, hail storms and thunder clouds are interconnected”. Climatologists have found that extreme weather events have also become deadlier, the story says.

Telegraph, too, has a front-page story about the frequent lightnings: they have quadrupled over a period of 40 years. This paper talked to experts after several deadly incidents with lightnings, and they said that city parks and gardens are becoming increasingly dangerous during  storms because there are no lightning rods.

Duma leads with a protest of residents of the southeastern village of Voden outside Parliament on Wednesday. The village was devastated by a wildfire and people blame the disaster on the State and the late arrival of fire engines.

POLITICS

On its front page, Trud introduces a set of stories on the political crisis in Bulgaria. One is entitled “Third [government-forming] Mandate on Its Way to There Is Such a People”. It is based on comments by  political analysts Diana Damyanova, Strahil Deliiski and Georgi Harizanov. According to the paper, the chances for the third mandate to produce a government are slim but not non-existent. They set them at 2% to 10%. All hopes are for the next Parliament.

Political analyst Slavi Vassilev said on the Bulgarian National Radio that the third mandate will likely fail and the country will have new snap elections. He also said, “When we are dealing with a fuzzy coalition or when it rests on fuzzy commitments, priorities and backstage deals, it is better to have snap elections that keep the country in insecurity.” He believes that this period of political uncertainty, that has lasted years now, is not wasted time. “There are regenerative processes that have been on since [GERB leader Boyko] Borissov ceased to be the all-mighty master of Bulgarian politics. Sooner or later, these regenerative processes will produce an alternative that Bulgaria badly needs,” he said.

In the morning programme of the Bulgarian National Television, social analyst Alexander Marinov said that there is no chance for the third mandate to produce a government. “Under certain circumstances, however, there is a chance that this mandate could lay the groundwork for a new type of communication that could bear fruit in the next parliament,” he said.

On Nova TV, social analyst Andrei Raichev and journalists Petko Georgiev and Viktor Ivanov comment the political situation. Raychev said, “Most parties are in an odd condition: one has collapsed, others are consumed by infighting. The President traditionally hands the third mandate to the Socialist party but it has recently plunged in a crisis". He expects that the third mandate either to the BSP or, more likely, to There Is Such a People. Radev is the president with the most caretaker governments, Raychev added. Petko Georgiev expects that There Is Such a People will go to GERB when they get the mandate but GERB have an interest in keeping things as they are as the caretaker government caters well to their interests. “Whatever happens, it will not be better than what we have or than the option of new elections", said Petko Georgiev. In his words, the big questions in Bulgarian politics are who will put together the candidates’ lists of the MRF and how far the other parties will use the MRF crisis to strengthen their electoral influence. Viktor Ivanov agrees with that and said that, technically, it remains unclear whether it is Delyan Peevski or co-leader Dzhevdet Chakarov who holds the party seal and will be able to register the candidates’ tickets under the “MRF” brand.

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24 Chasa has a spread with the takeaways from the Q&A session on Facebook of Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev on Tuesday. The headline quotes him as saying that he has never been under pressure from political leaders and that not even the President has ever tried to put pressure on him.

***

Most papers cover a clash between Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev and President Rumen Radev over the designation of former Defence Minister Nikolai Nenchev as Bulgarian charge d’affaires in Ukraine.

Telegraph writes about “sparks between the Prime Minister and President”. The subheading quotes the President as saying that Nenchev is incompetent and the Prime Minister dismissing the President’s criticism that the established procedure was bypassed.

Duma has a front-page op-ed about it, where it used a lot of pejoratives as regards Nikolay Nenchev (“triumph of mediocrity”, “banal, hollow and two-dimensional person”). It covers the clash between the President and Prime Minister over Nenchev in a story on an inside page.

24 Chasa says in the headline that Radev “is angry for being bypassed on Ukraine” and quotes him as saying that Nenchev does not have qualities for an ambassador.

Mediapool.bg writes that the President said he had approved a different candidate for Bulgaria's ambassador to Ukraine, but the coordination procedure was not completed by the Council of Ministers. The head of State did not mention the name of the diplomat but unofficially it was Petar Tanev, who was an adviser at the Bulgarian mission in Kyiv. Former Defence Minister Velizar Shalamanov said it was "very likely that the proposed person in this coordination turned out to be unacceptable to the Ukrainian side". According to him, what he calls “the Nenchev Case" is a symptom of a weak state.

Shalamanov said on the Bulgarian National Radio, "This whole story is very sad. It is a symptom of weak statehood in the most difficult period possible after the Second World War, as far as security and international order go".

On the Bulgarian National Television, former EU funding minister and diplomat Meglena Plougchieva said that the President is right to insist that the procedure for ambassadorial appointment needs to be observed in the case of Bulgaria’s ambassador to Kyiv. The Prime Minister did not sound convincing when he said that the war in Ukraine is the reason for not having enough candidates for the ambassadorship there, argued Plougchieva.
 

***

Trud reproduces a Facebook post by journalist Kalina Androlova under the headline “Nobody Can Tell Dogan What to Do with His Party”. “Dogan” is the founder and honorary chair of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). According to the author, what MRF will be like in the next Parliament is a question that will determine the chances for a stable future government. “Those who prattle about isolation of MRF are ludicrous: isolation only helped strengthen the character of the party,” she says.

On the morning programme of bTV, political analyst Rumyana Bachvarova said that the conflict in MRF “will spread vertically and reach the local level where it will generate broader tensions”. She said that the country is already suffering the fallout from the MRF rift and has only seen the beginning of it. She fears that it will impact adversely the work of the judiciary.

ECONOMY

According to Trud, GERB are seeking a stepped up euro changeover. They have prepared a draft resolution for speeding up and completing the practical preparation for the changeover, which has been signed by leader Boyko Borissov and nearly all members of the GERB parliamentary group.

***

Trud reports that mortgage loans have reached a new high. The story is titled “Billions Provided for Home Purchase”. The story also says that household deposits grew by BGN 9.1 billion over a year.

A story in Telegraph says that property sellers have decreased by a fifth across the country. Property prices and the number of deals is increasing, the paper says.

***

24 Chasa reports that the opposition in the Sofia Municipal Council put stumbling blocks for the idea to put more bins for recyclable waste in Sofia. A report demanding increase of the waste bins, that was prepared by Deputy Mayor for Environment Nadezhda Bobcheva and Council members from Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, was voted down by GERB, BSP and independents at a meeting of the competent committee. The decisive vote is due in the plenary on July 25.

The report was one of the topics in the morning programme of the Bulgarian National Television. There, Emilia Angelova, a municipal councillor of Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, said that “GERB and BSP showed once again their economic dependencies. “The effective contracts [for waste collection] have been signed under a GERB-dominated administration and treat the contractors most favourably, to put it mildly. They are to the detriment of the people of Sofia,” she said.

***

Telegraph, Duma and the Bulgarian National Radio, among other media outlets, report that hotel and restaurant owners are threatening protests over the high price of electricity and the risk of business failures, and demand compensations from the government.

***

Rumen Draganov, Director of the Institute for Analysis in Tourism, said in the morning programme on bTV that there is an increase of Bulgarian tourists in Greece. He said, “If we look at the year before the pandemic, we had about 1.4 million tourists and last year we had 1.8 million. A part of them - about 400,000 - go there for work. Others own property there, they have interests, some go just for the weekend, others for a coffee. Greece has become like home to us," said he. He says, however, that domestic tourism is stronger than the outbound tourism.

***

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski of the Republic of North Macedonia wants the EU to suspend the pan-European transport Corridor VIII, report the Wednesday press. Trud quotes Mickoski as saying on TV Telma that a railway project to Bulgaria, that is part of Corridor VIII, would be abandoned. The story also quotes the Prime Minister as calling Viktor Orban as “Macedonian hero”.

Duma also has the story (“Skopje Gives Up Rail Link with Bulgaria”).

Mediapool.bg runs it under the headline “North Macedonia Abandons Corridor Via Bulgaria to Focus on One Via Serbia”.

JUSTICE

Trud carries a two-page interview with Vladimir Nikolov, the chair of the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria. Much of the interview is about prosecutors’ position on the constitutional amendments last year as the Constitutional Court now is expected to pronounce on their constitutionality. The headline quotes him as saying that “The Constitution was used for achieving ad hoc goals”. He also says that politicians “have always had an appetite for the prosecution service and now it is being served to them on a plate”. He also argues that “fragmenting the prosecution service is not a reform”.

CHURCH

On a spread, Telegraph reproduces the first interview of Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil for the official journal of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

THE WORLD

Trud continues to focus on President Biden’s decision to abandon the presidential race and the emergence of Kamala Harris as the likely Democratic nominee. According to a comment by Viktoria Georgieva, “the only think Harris can offer Democrats and Americans in general is more of the same but in a younger and healthier body”. She says there have already been comments that “the only thing that is worse than Biden’s re-election bid is the possible nomination of Kamala Harris”.

The Kamala Harris story in Telegraph says in the headline that she secured her nomination by the Democratic party only a day after her bid was announced.

24 Chasa reports that Harris raised USD 81 million in 24 hours for her campaign. An op-ed by Valeri Naydenov says that the party elite in the US “has contracted the Bulgarian political disease”; that Harris has the smallest chance to beat Trump; and that the Democratic has potential candidates that are 10 times better than Harris.

Mediapool.bg reproduces a Washington Post analysis about Harris’ chances to beat Trump.