site.btaMedia Review: December 27

THE POLITICAL 2024 AND 2025    

Approached by www.dnevnik.bg to assess to outgoing year and make predictions for the new one, legal expert and former MP Verzhiniya Velcheva describes Bulgaria's 2024 as "a period of grave institutional crisis". 

As the most serious challenge in the coming year, she singles out "a return to meaningful debate in society, without taboo subjects and without glossing over the serious issues, with more honesty and less political correctness, and with tangible and effective measures to combat disinformation and enemy propaganda," given "the failure of traditional media and of politicians to moderate the public debate and resulting in ever larger vulnerability and susceptibility of societies to malicious propaganda and conspiracy theories at variance with the facts that find fertile ground in the consciousness of the 'man in the street'."

Asked to diagnose the condition of society and of politics in Bulgaria after the seventh early parliamentary elections, the interviewee says that the disease is progressing towards a terminal phase. "I am personally perplexed by the complete flight from realities both among politicians and among politically active citizens, including among people espousing identical views, at least verbally."

"Undoubtedly the best thing that happened to Bulgaria during the year was full accession to the Schengen area. The bad thing is that we continue to hobble somewhere on the EU fringe, unable to benefit from the advantages of membership, that we continue to be quagmired in battles with bogus objectives which, worse yet, we are unable to bring to an outcome, and they increasingly turn into some sort of a 'man eat man' world," Velcheva observes. 

WILL PRESIDENT RADEV ENTER PARTY POLITICS

In an interview for Trud, political scientist Toncho Kraeveski points out, replying to a question, that President Rumen Radev violated the Constitution by refusing to invite MRF-New Beginning to consultations on cabinet formation. In the interviewee's opinion, Radev's gestures are intended to prompt and remind the public that the Constitution is practically suspended and dysfunctional after the latest unconstitutional amendments. "For the time being, though, these are merely gestures. None of his violations is as daring as the violations that Parliament takes the liberty to commit," the political scientist argues.

Asked whether a possible party of Radev is unlikely to succeed, given the liabilities he has amassed during the seven years of his presidency, Kraevski says that "on the whole, Radev does not have a problem with his approval rating. I think he is not setting up a party because he does not have reliable allies in Parliament, and his worst nightmare is to win, say, 110 seats in the National Assembly - a major symbolic victory but quite meaningless without a majority and dooming him to horse-trading with the parliamentary oligarchy." "He is not a good schemer, and if he finds himself in Parliament without 121 votes of his own, he will be dragged to the bottom."

BSP ON CABINET NEGOTIATIONS WITH GERB, UKRAINE

Interviewed by Duma, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Chair Atanas Zafirov says that after the talks on cabinet formation between BSP-United Left and GERB-UDF the parties found common ground on quite a few subjects, including a postponement of the household electricity price liberalization.

Asked whether agreement had been reached with GERB on Bulgaria's Euro-Atlantic orientation and firm support for Ukraine, the interviewee says that "the BSP is a pro-European party" and nobody has ever called this into question. "As far as Ukraine is concerned, we have a clear and consistent position: yes to humanitarian assistance, no to military aid. One thing is certain: solidarity with Ukraine cannot be more important than Bulgarian citizens' needs and interest. And I hope all parties in this country are well aware of this. We are Bulgarians, we need peace in the region and pragmatic interests in it." Zafirov describes his coalition's "firm position that peace rather than armament and continuation of the war should be sought in the conflict in Ukraine" as a "civilizational choice," adding that "the search for peace does not imply that peace precludes a search for justice for all victims of the hostilities".

COALITION CULTURE

Under the heading "The Problem with Coalitions in Bulgaria", Prof. Trendafil Mitev writes in Trud that Bulgarians lack a well-established coalition culture in national political thinking simply because the largest coalitions in this country have been formed in years of dramatic turmoil rather than in normal times, which is why these coalitions have not left only positive traces to provide a groundwork for present-day politics. "The last decade has given rise to an unprecedented inter-party race: who and how will get the most durable hold of power so as to monopolize the allocation of the biggest share of public money. This is the prime current source of mistrust, animosity and cheating among the main pretenders for the executive. Hence, present-day society lack a fundamental modern motivation and sustained civilizational willingness for modern coalition thinking and action. Because the parties target Parliament and the government guided by a dream of quick and easy enrichment of their faithful at the expense of public funding."

"Party leaders must learn to identify and address promptly the problems of society in a coalition with loyal partners, and then to honour the word they gave when coalescing, to be duty-bound to work selflessly so that their coalition policy would succeed, to wisely reckon with the peculiarities of their partners so as to avoid unnecessary crises in the alliance. Only thus and then the whole people will feel the benefits of creative coalition practice," the author concludes.

ELECTIONS IN 2024

Iva Lazarova, who chairs the Public Council with the Central Election Commission (CEC) and the Institute for Public Environment Development, said on the Friday morning show of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) that the State spent almost BGN 240 million on the arrangement of the three election campaigns in 2024, while they cost the parties participating in them some BGN 14 million.

She sees the parties' inabilities to commit to a proper organization of the election process is one of the main issues in recent years. As a result, few voters turn out and trust the integrity of the balloting. "The voter turnout in the three campaigns in 2024 approximated 33%, less than the average of 51% in the European Parliament elections in June in the EU Member States. Compared to the 66% in the US presidential elections, the latest parliamentary elections in Bulgaria saw half that turnout figure," the interviewee pointed out.

She does not think that fatigue is the principal deterrent factor. "Especially the latest campaign did not provide any tangible answers to the problems of society. The issues were rather centred around the intra-party bickering between the two MRF factions. The only topic that pushed them aside was potential vote rigging, controlled vote and vote buying, i.e. nothing essential of concern to voters."

"If election legislation is to be revised, we should be aware that this will be done by the political entities that have been highly disliked by voters over the last four years, i.e. those same entities that were blamed for vote rigging, or non-transparent conduct of elections. It will be precisely on them that we will rely to change the rules or to go the next elections according to the unchanged rule. Enough time should be allowed for a broad-ranging debate," the expert commented. 

CASES OF JUDICIAL SYSTEM LOBBYISTS CAME TO NAUGHT

Interviewed on BNR on Friday morning, journalist Boris Mitov of Radio Free Europe said the murder of Martin "the Notary" Bozhanov is of the kind that usually go unsolved in Bulgaria. "No investigation into the case has even been completed, and we don't have any information on its progress," he commented.

Mitov added that there was an "inept attempt" to take the case against Petyo "the Euro" Petrov to the court, and it failed. The prosecution service has not clarified any circumstances about possible dependencies of supreme magistrates on Petrov, the journalist pointed out. As such magistrates, he listed, referring to witness testimonies at the Sofia Regional Court, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, Sofia City Prosecutor Iliyana Kirilova and acting Sofia Appellate Prosecutor Emilia Rusinova. The interviewee noted that this evidence was subsequently discredited as faked. "Still, the doubts linger about everybody because they have not been dispelled," he commented.

In Mitov's opinion, the only option to block the procedure for the election of a new prosecutor general is for Parliament to pass the relevant legislation. "Everything depends on a majority and above all on GERB. The position of the GERB leader [Boyko Borisov] wavers between the interests of Sarafov and [MRF-New Beginning leader Delyan] Peevski." "If he [Borisov] determines that the prosecutors' game got too political, he may turn against Peevski's interests which obviously overlap with Sarafov's interests," the interviewee commented. He believes that if Sarafov is ousted as prosecutor general or is not appointed to a permanent position, this may unblock the negotiations on formation of a cabinet.

POLITICIANS' SPEAKING

Interviewed by 24 Chasa, Assoc. Prof. Vladislav Milanov of Sofia University says that a recent poll taken by his department showed that quite a few people find it difficult to understand what politicians are telling them.

"Politicians' worst mistake seems to be speech aggression and inappropriate words," the linguist says. He is adamant that "there are dramatic deficiencies, speech aggression and careless expressions apparently take up an ever increasing part of our communication." He specifies that "the problem is not in cynical speaking but in cynical thinking and the build-up of expectations that somebody likes and supports this kind of speaking."

SEX AND GENDER

In an analysis contributed to Trud, Dr Iliya Iliev argues that the differences between the sexes stem from objective biological factors. Referring to US President-elect Trump's pledge that under his administration it will be the official policy of the US government that there are only two genders, male and female, the author notes that "the fight with the perversion would not be that difficult in the narrower group of gender activists, but their mainstays in the sick segments of American society, especially in the political class and its labyrinthine backstage, are mighty and reluctant to yield ground without resistance."

Noting that scientists count as many as 6,500 differences between men and women due to biological and social specificities, Dr Iliyev writes that "no gender activists nor thousands of woke can change this fact of nature. Their ideologues and spearheads are well aware of this but carefully hide it from their followers. Their activism is essentially an anti-human, anti-social subversive activity, intended to atomize mankind and subsequently annihilate the majority."

REAL ESTATE

Telegraph leads on the news that the mortgage loans extended by Bulgarian banks in 2024 increased by BGN 5.135 billion or 26.3%, year on year. Such liabilities to banks have grown 2.8-fold over the last ten years. The main reasons for this development are the low lending rates and the pandemic that made more people look for more spacious housing due to the restrictions imposed by the health authorities. Home buyers' optimistic expectations are prompted by a strong labour market, a significant rise in income over the last five years, and access to cheap mortgage financing, real estate expert Miroslav Vladimirov is quoted as saying. In his opinion, intervention by the central bank alone can restore the housing market's equilibrium. After the restrictions introduced in October, the central bank will try to curb lending even further in 2025, most probably by imposing a requirement for the ratio between the mortgage debt and the annual income and between the total amount of debt and the annual income, the expert says.

PROBLEM GAMBLING 

In its top front-page story, 24 Chasa writes that 41,344 gambling addicts are currently listed in a special register set up for the purpose with the National Revenue Agency. The number of compulsive gamblers that voluntarily put themselves on record has soared from 125 in 2022 (when the register was established in December) to 27,720 in 2023 and 21,435 in 2024. This year, 8,120 of those registered have dropped out after the statutory time limit of 30 days (down from two years after May 2024 legal amendments).

The idea of registration is not to count those hooked but to enable them to block their access to gambling, as licensed operators are obliged to check whether visitors are in the register. Nevertheless, there are ways to bypass the restrictions, and they are used.
 
Psychologists say that gambling addicts are most often secondary-school and university graduates, doing distance work, IT professionals or computer programmers. It is not true that most people having this problem are men. The number of women seeking support is growing, but they bet smaller amounts of money.

FOOD WASTING

Nova Television reported Friday morning that Bulgarians waste over 600 million kg of food annually, or an average 93 kg per capita, according to the Bulgarian Food Bank (BFB). This quantity costs nearly BGN 600 per person.

During the Christmas season, food wasting soars by at least one third, a BFB study found.

This year the Food Bank recovered over 320,000 kg of food and distributed it to nearly 60,000 persons in need, the TV station said.