site.btaMedia Review: August 9

NEW CARETAKER PRIME MINISTER APPOINTED

Friday media report on President Rumen Radev who designated Bulgarian National Audit Office Vice-President Goritsa Grancharova-Kozhareva as the next caretaker prime minister. The topic is thoroughly covered in all online news outlets, televisions and in the news websites of the paper outlets. The appointment of Grancharova-Kozhareva on Friday morning was followed by numerous political reactions. Shortly afterwards, Radev said October 20 is the best date for new snap parliamentary elections.

Grancharova-Kozhareva was appointed after parliamentary forces failed to reach agreement on a regular government after the snap parliamentary elections on June 9. The Bulgarian Constitution says that after the parties fail to put together a regular government, the President should hold consultations with the parliamentary groups, should appoint a caretaker government at the proposal of a caretaker prime minister-designate, and should schedule elections within two months. After the Constitution was amended in December 2023, the President can choose the caretaker prime minister-designate from among several options: the Chair of the National Assembly, the Governor or a Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, the President or a Vice President of the National Audit Office, and the Ombudsman or a Deputy Ombudsman.

POLITICS

In a Bulgarian National Radio interview, political scientist Milen Zhelev commented on the political turmoil in Bulgaria. According to him, the biggest political event of 2024 is the rift in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). The rift will "shuffle the deck of cards", will deepen the problems in the country and will reflect on the results of the upcoming snap parliamentary elections. It is quite possible that GERB-UDF will have more MPs in the next parliament, Zhelev said. In his words, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) risk repeating their poor results from the last elections as they have internal contradictions. Vazrazhdane can only amass more voters if there is chaos in the country. However, they also have a hard core of voters that follow party leader Kostadin Kostadinov. It is also possible that small parties such as Velichie [Grandeur] will make a breakthrough and enter the next parliament, Zhelev stressed, adding that, in general, voters in Bulgaria do not trust their political representatives.

SOCIETY

In a Capital Weekly article, journalist Polina Paunova criticises on the decision of the National Assembly to pass an amendment banning the "propaganda, promotion or incitement" of "non-traditional sexual orientation" and "defining gender identity different from biological sex" in schools and kindergartens. MPs from the 50th National Assembly, who otherwise pledge to be Euro-Atlantic, adopted an amendment similar to a legislation introduced by Vladimir Putin in Russia in 2014. The amendment was passed conclusively in Parliament, mostly with votes 'in favour' from MPs of GERB-UDF, the so-called "two" MRFs – the one of Delyan Peevski and the other of Ahmed Dogan, BSP for Bulgaria and Vazrazhdane, the article says. The draft bill that was tabled by Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of the Eurosceptic Vazrazhdane party, is pretty much one-in-one with the amendments in Russia in 2014, later adopted in Hungary and Poland, as well. The decision of the National Assembly is scandalous, because it is a misanthropic act, Paunova writes, adding that people are witnessing a purposeful inculcation of uneducation that will inevitably deepen the disintegration of society.

ECONOMY

In its frontpage story, the Trud daily says that Bulgarians are working less years before they retire. In 2023, men who started receiving a retirement pension worked an average of 35.1 years and women worked an average of 34.1 years, the newspaper said, citing data from the National Social Security Institute (NSSI). The highest pensions are in Sofia, where the average monthly pension of one pensioner is BGN 1038.54. The second highest pensions in Bulgaria are in Burgas, where they average BGN 929.21.

***

Also citing the NSSI data, the 24 Chasa daily’s frontpage headline says: "BGN 1.4 Bln Paid for Unearned Pensions to 795,228 [Persons]". According to the article, in 2023, the government has paid over BGN 1.4 billion to enable 795,228 people to receive a minimum pension. The state's top-up is needed because the minimum pension is "unearned", according to 24 Chasa, as its amount is higher than the amount of the contribution of the people who receive it. The situation has arisen after various governments have raised the minimum pension over the years. In 2023, one in three pensioners in Bulgaria received a higher pension than he/she earned, 24 Chasa writes.

ENERGY

Mediapool.bg publishes an article based on an investigation by journalists from the PULSE international project, according to which there is a risk that the Vertical Gas Corridor will become a failed project or a conduit for the growing influence of Russian natural gas in Europe. The Vertical Gas Corridor was presented as an alternative to the Ukrainian gas route to Europe and aims to provide a diversity of gas sources and routes. The project was launched as an initiative of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania in 2014. After the start of Russia's war in Ukraine in 2022, the idea of the project evolved to expanding the capacities of the existing gas transmission systems from Greece through Bulgaria and Romania to Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Ukraine. The goal was to secure additional gas transport from the South to the North - mainly liquefied natural gas from terminals in Greece to Central and Eastern Europe.

Project participants are gas operators DESFA S.A. (Greece), Bulgartransgaz and ICGB AD (Bulgaria), Transgaz S.A. (Romania), FGSZ Ltd. (Hungary), Eustream a.s. (Slovakia), Gas TSO (Ukraine) and VestМoldТransgaz S.R.L (Moldova). According to an agreement from autumn 2023, all participants were to announce parallel binding market tests for gas traders in July 2024 to verify whether the planned additional capacities would be used and to decide if a final investment on the expansion of gas connections would be made.

According to the article, Bulgartransgaz has turned out to be the most impatient participant in the project and after a parliamentary decision did not even conduct a market test, but directly started construction. The investment is worth nearly BGN 600 million without VAT. There are no contracts with traders, but Bulgartransgaz’s argument is that once the project provides permanent capacity there is no need for long-term reservations, and even annual or shorter reservations will attract gas traders.

The other Bulgarian participant, ICGB AD, which operates the gas interconnector with Greece, admits that interest in the project has turned out to be lower than originally announced. The company told Mediapool.bg that it is likely to wait for the situation with the commissioning of the liquefied gas terminal near the Greek city of Alexandroupolis to develop to take actions. Due to a leak in the pipeline, its commissioning has been delayed, making the market situation currently unfavourable for such projects. This is precisely the reason why gas traders are not interested in the additional capacities of the Vertical Gas Corridor, Mediapool’s story further says.

SOFIA – THE NOISIEST CITY IN EUROPE

An article in the Capital Weekly reads that Sofia ranks first in Europe in terms of noise pollution levels above the World Health Organization's recommended ones, ahead of 749 cities in the negative ranking. The main sources of noise in the Bulgarian capital are car traffic, including noisy engines of old or sports cars whose owners accelerate their cars at full throttle down the empty boulevards at night, trams running on depreciated tracks, as well as renovations and construction activities. Several institutions share responsibility for regulating noise, leading to a failure to tackle the problem. Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev and caretaker Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov agree that better synchronisation between institutions is needed, but the situation is not changing and the Protection Against Environmental Noise Act remains ineffective, Kapital Weekly says.

SPORT

All media cover thoroughly Bulgaria’s success in the 13th day of the Paris 2024 Olympics. On August 8, Bulgaria’s athletes secured a total of five medals, including one gold and three bronzes. Semen Novikov won Bulgaria’s first gold at the Olympics, defeating Iran's Alireza Mohmadipiani in the men's 87kg Greco-Roman wrestling final. Bozhidar Andreev won a bronze medal in the men's 73 kg weightlifting competition. Kimia Alizadeh took bronze defeating 2022 world champion Luo Zongshi of China in the women’s 57 kg event, and boxer Javier Ibanez Diaz won bronze in the men's 57kg event. Also on Thursday, wrestler Magomed Ramazanov qualified to the men's 86kg freestyle wrestling final, securing at least a silver medal in the competition before the upcoming final.