site.btaMedia Review: August 21

POLITICS

Trud's front page praises GERB leader Boyko Borissov for cutting the "political knot" and offering a solution to the constitutional crisis by demanding the resignation of caretaker Minister of Interior, Kalin Stoyanov. The daily quotes constitutional experts, who stated that now President Rumen Radev and caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev must act to have a new interior minister appointed.

Former Continue the Change PR Diana Damianova told Trud that while she is no fan of Borissov, she admits that "he made the only sensible move faced by the alternative of having this Parliament govern for who knows how long". Damianova is not convinced however that replacing Stoyanov would lead to any significant change in the Ministry, since the new minister would most likely be appointed from among Stoyanov's current deputies. The expert concludes that compromise must be sought in order to avoid an institutional crisis.

In an op-ed entitled "It Is Hard to Differentiate between the Good and the Bad in the Fight for Power" and published by Trud, Victoria Georgieva writes that Stoyanov is likely to keep his position at least until the next elections. The author criticizes Radev for acting more like a party leader than like a head of State and a uniting figure. She adds that the President is acting like an authoritarian and contributing to the deepening of the ongoing crisis.

In an interview for Nova TV quoted by Telegraph, constitutional expert Prof. Plamen Kirov said that Radev's decision not to sign a decree to form a cabinet is not a violation of the Constitution. Kirov believes that caretaker Prime Minister Glavchev has already formed a cabinet, so if he appears as a candidate for a new prime minister, he can present a new list of ministers and then potentially replace part of the current composition of the Council of Ministers.

Social scientist Evelina Slavkova told Telegraph that political tensions or personal disagreements between President Radev and Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) floor leader Delyan Peevski may be the reason why Radev chose not to decree the appointment of a caretaker cabinet proposed by Goritsa Grancharova-Kozhareva over the presence in it of Kalin Stoyanov as Interior Minister. Another scenario that Slavkova sees as possible is that Radev saw Stoyanov as unfit to organize fair elections.

If Stoyanov gets dropped from the list of Cabinet members but joins the MRF as the head of a candidate list in the upcoming elections, as Peevski indicated may happen, Slavkova suggested that this may paint Stoyanov as a figure that has been influenced by the MRF during his term as Interior Minister.

Political expert Daniel Stefanov told 24 Chasa that the role that the Interior Ministry plays in organizing the elections has been significantly exaggerated, as the Central Election Commission is the actual institution responsible for this process. Stefanov specified that the Interior Ministry's functions are to secures the voting sites and the transportation of the ballots and machinery. It takes care of order on election day around the polling stations. He added: "We have not had a single abuse by the Ministry of Interior over the years! Therefore, it is very important that the role of the Interior Ministry is not exaggerated, especially in the days before the elections. It should not be as visible on election day. The bigger this role is in this process, the bigger the problem we have."

Stefanov said that some political parties are using the Ministry as a scapegoat to explain losing votes. He said: "Elections have been a part of party propaganda for a long time now. They are used to excuse wrong political moves. You remember the big controversy there was about whether to vote by machine or whether to keep paper ballots. These purely technical elements of the electoral process were highly politicized. [Politicians] explained that the fairness of the elections depended on it. None of this was true. We cannot say in Bulgaria that the fairness of the elections depends on who the interior minister is. The problem here is that an election is only as fair as the public believes it to be."

According to the expert, if Bulgaria's president, prime minister or other major political figures keep saying that the elections are unfair, or that their fairness hangs in the balance, the public is bound to remain sceptical too.

Gallup International social expert Parvan Simeonov said in an interview for Nova TV: "The situation taking shape is everyone against Peevski. According to CC-DB [Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria], he is influencing Kalin Stoyanov. Borissov takes sides according to which way the wind blows. The President and [Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin] Kostadinov have clear positions, [There Is Such a People leader] Slavi Trifonov usually acts pridefully, and BSP [Bulgarian Socialist Party] returns to Radev. GERB is also influenced by Peevski – Borissov will not have it easy."

ECONOMY

Duma quotes data from the National Statistical Institute, which suggests that of the registered 130,300 unemployed in the second quarter of 2024, 55.1% were men. The number of unemployed decreased by 10,700 year-on-year. The majority of employed people in the second quarter of this year were also men with 1,553,800 compared to 1,376,500 women.

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Trud and Telegraph have published an analysis by the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA), the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, which shows that if current trends persist, 48% of the workforce in the country will be 55 of older within the next 20 years. The analysis looked at five economic sectors in particular: canning industry, wood and furniture industry, metallurgy, brewing, trade in petroleum products.

According to BIA's analysis, every second enterprise faces problems in the attitudes of employees related to low motivation, reluctance to learn and improve, lack of efficiency, initiative, creativity and negative attitude to change. Almost one in two companies faces problems stemming from a lack of communication skills in management and executive staff and from low resilience to stress at work.

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In an interview for Trud, financial expert Nikola Filipov said that fundamentally, inflationary processes have a negative impact on the construction sector. When price levels rise, it is only logical to expect an increase in final prices, because the main factors of production, such as labour, energy and materials, are rising. As a consequence, investors are increasing the selling prices of properties, which, all other things being equal, should reduce demand. According to Filipov, inflation in the property market does not appear to be discouraging households from investing in property, because income levels continue to outpace inflation. If these two variables correlate, the property market will continue to grow.

The expert says that price risk is a problem for the whole economy, but the most negatively affected sectors are those that depend heavily on energy prices. These sectors are industrial production, construction, transport services and food processing. The lack of price stability in the energy sector was also the main reason for the unfolding inflationary processes in 2022 and 2023.

According to Filipov, the biggest failure of the Government in recent years is giving up the fiscal conservatism in structuring the state budget, which used to be the main factor for economic growth before the country fell into a political crisis.

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24 Chasa reports that fuel prices are the lowest they have been over the past two and a half years, with A95 petrol selling for BGN 2.54 per litre. Last time the price as so low was in February 2022, however, it then spiked to BGN 3.40 per litre over the summer.

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Duma's front page quotes 24 Chasa, which reported that the price of firewood has gone up by 8% to 10% year-on-year despite promises by the Ministry of Agriculture made in February 2024 that it would go down by 20%. More than 60% of Bulgarian households rely on firewood or coal for their needs over the winter. Central heating is the preferred choice of 20%, while another 20% use air conditioning or other electrical appliances. Forestry enterprises sell wood from broad-leaved trees at BGN 100 per cbm and wood from conifers at BGN 70 per cbm.

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Trud reports that the price of gold has increased by 32% in a year. The article suggests that investing in the precious metal could be wise, as its price has increased by more than 66% in the past five years and nearly sixfold in the past 20 years. On Tuesday afternoon, gold was selling for a record high USD 2,522 per troy ounce compared to USD 430 two decades ago, Duma adds.

AGRICULTURE

Duma quotes the Risk Assessment Center of Food Chain, which reported that some 30% of livestock farmers in Bulgaria expect to go bankrupt, if cage breeding gets banned in the country. The poll is based on questionnaires, which were answered by 83 poultry, pig farmers and cattle farmers. The research was initiated by the European Food Safety Authority, which aims to establish farmers' attitudes towards phasing out the allegedly inhumane practice of cage breeding.

TOURISM

Telegraph quotes Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association, Veselin Nalbantov, reporting that workers, who came from several Asian countries to be hired by Bulgarian hotels on the Black Sea, are choosing to leave Bulgaria illegally and travel to Western Europe instead. Nalbantov added: "There was no such problem last year. Starting this season, however, workers that we hired under a labour agreement from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal began to flee. They leave their belongings and documents behind. They do not take their passports or visas, only the clothes they are wearing. They do not even take their wages. Two of my workers fled last night. [...] This is a serious problem."

UKRAINIAN REFUGEES

Telegraph reports that the Ministry of Tourism will grant BGN 4.3 million to the hotels that have provided shelter under the Humanitarian Aid Program for people seeking protection from the war in Ukraine.

EDUCATION

Yulian Petrov, head of the Education Union within the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour, told Telegraph that students in all grades should take annual exams at the end of every academic year and not just fourth graders as is currently the case. Podkrepa believes that these exams should cover all academic subjects rather than Bulgarian language and mathematics.

HEALTHCARE

bTV reports that the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has run out of money for free medicines. New legislation introduced in April guaranteed that 56 medicines would be completely free for patients. Pharmacies will now have to wait until September to get funds for this expense, as became clear after a meeting of the NHIF last week reported by Sega.

CULTURE

Trud and Telegraph report that Bulgarian singer Mihaela Fileva will be the opening act for Ed Sheeran's concert, scheduled to take place in Sofia on August 31.

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Telegraph writes that a photo exhibition hosted by gallery Dot Sofia will take place in the capital city between September 3 and October 5. The exhibition will show what the city looked like in the 1970s.