site.btaMedia Review: June 6

Media Review: June 6
Media Review: June 6
Bulgarian dailies (BTA Photo)

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All media comment on the expected vote of the newly-formed cabinet in Parliament. Parliament votes on Denkov-Gabriel cabinet, writes 24 Chasa. Two months and 4 days after the elections, the National Assembly meets in an extraordinary session to vote on the proposed government. The Denkov-Gabriel cabinet will be the first in history to provide for a rotation of the prime minister's post. Nikolai Denkov will be prime minister for the first nine months. The agenda includes three items - the election of the prime minister, the adoption of the structure of the Council of Ministers and the election of the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria, reports Nova TV.

After the swearing-in ceremony in the National Assembly building, the Head of State will receive at Dondukov 2 the composition of the caretaker cabinet with Prime Minister Galab Donev, appointed on February 3, 2023. After that, there will be a transfer of power by ministries. Hours before handing over the post to the new prime minister, Galab Donev made a report on what has been done. In his words, the biggest challenge for the caretaker cabinet in the last four months has been inflation, and the most difficult task has been the development of measures to control the prices of basic food products, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported. On the foreign policy front, he reported on Bulgaria's membership in the eurozone and Schengen and active talks with Austria and the Netherlands, as well as the diversification of natural gas routes and sources achieved.

Parliament's agenda includes three items - the election of the prime minister, the adoption of the structure of the Council of Ministers and the election of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria, writes Trud. President Radev will also attend the session. It is planned that the first rotating chairman will be Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) nominee Nikolay Denkov. After 9 months, the post will be taken over by Mariya Gabriel, who until then will be Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

The cabinet is supported by CC-DB and GERB-UDF. The two coalitions have a total of 132 MPs. Thus they secure a majority according to their previously declared intentions. Vazrazhdane, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and There Is Such a People (TISP) have already declared that they will not support the government with the second mandate, and "Revival" is organizing a protest today. It is not yet clear how the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) MPs will vote.

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Telegraf carries an extensive piece quoting experts on constitutional law commenting on the newly-compiled cabinet. They are adamant it should feature more than one deputy prime minister. "The law explicitly states it in the plural, meaning it needs to be at least two. There has never been a case of a government structure that has only one deputy prime minister. So I guess they can add one more person, obviously in the rush they didn't comply," said Assoc. Prof. Natalia Kiselova. Regarding the rotation of prime ministers, she explained that this is not a problem and does not violate the Constitution, provided that after a certain period one resigns. "It is a political agreement, a matter for them to decide," she said.

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24 Chasa carries a title of "the Cabinet's 10 Months' Survivor: A Record, with 10 Major Successes, According to PM Donev", chosen for caretaker Prime Minister Galab Donev's report on the results of his cabinet's work. His advice to the new cabinet: Political arrogance is out of fashion, don't crush people – they are the State". The report follows the key priorities of his government: to organize and hold fair and free elections for National Assembly; to improve the purchasing power of Bulgarian people; to fight against impoverishment; to support the socially vulnerable; to encourage investments, among others. He also added the issues of security, including protecting the national border from illegal crossings, as well as countering crime and corruption.

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Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) and 24 Chasa report on an Alpha Research polling agency nationally representative survey commissioned by Bulgarian National television (BNT), according to which: 52% would vote for the Denkov-Gabriel cabinet if they were MPs. "35% would vote against and 13% would abstain. The poll was conducted on June 5, 2023. 400 adults from across the country were surveyed by direct standardised telephone interview.

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On NOVA TV's morning show, political scientists and journalists discussed the forthcoming voting at Parliament of the Denkov-Gabriel cabinet, the sure support of the GERB-UDF and CC-DB with the 132 votes in total. The MRF is not yet known how it will vote, while Vazrazhdane, BSP and TISP said they were against. What are the challenges facing the possible new cabinet? "At least it is clear that the cabinet is being born, but how long it will last, how it will act - I don't think we can predetermine in advance," said political analyst Rumyana Kolarov Journalist Valeriya Veleva said that perhaps for the first time the government is being accepted with enthusiasm. "Nobody seems to be happy with this government - neither the political parties that make it up, nor the public. A government laden with internal distrust and conflict," she added.

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Vazrazhdane goes on protest in front of the National Assembly, 24 Chasa reports. On Tuesday, an hour before the vote on the Denkov-Gabriel cabinet, representatives and supporters of the "Revival" PP will stage a protest in front of the National Assembly, the party said. "Seventy percent (14 in number) of the ministers in the Denkov-Gabriel cabinet are linked to the US, five of them are direct recipients of grants from the America for Bulgaria Foundation, i.e. they are directly funded by the foreign foundation. We call on every free Bulgarian to come out in front of the National Assembly to show that we do not agree with Bulgaria being ruled by foreign countries," the party appealed. And on Saturday - 10 June at 12:00 noon in front of the National Assembly Vazrazhdane will organize a protest against the occupying American regime disguised as a Bulgarian government," the party said.

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Trud News features an interview with psychiatrist and writer Dr Lyubomir Kanov, titled Denkov and Gabriel play tango, if one trips the other, they both fall. Asked whether the Denkov-Gebriel cabinet will succeed, and whether it is a product of compromise, combined with accusations of treason, Kanov says it appeared after "a process of compromise, negotiation and glimmers of common sense. Probably a realisation of a common interest and I think even - why not - individual bouts of nobility and concession. And last but not least, probably dictated by Bulgaria's foreign policy circumstances in our region. So there are quite a lot of factors, but I'm still blasé at the thought that there was common sense in the arrangements for drawing it up. Commenting on a question referring to observers' opinion of the emerging three centres of power - the parliament through the GERB-CC-DB majority, the presidency and the prosecutor's office, where the attorney general is starting to play it as the centre of power." Kanov says the odious figure of Prosecutor General has always been the centre of distribution of money and of power. This was caused by the ridiculous Constitution that produced such a figure over whom only God is, as Ivan Tatarchev claimed. These all inhabit the sub-heavenly space. It is a ridiculous flaw in the legal system of Bulgaria. But I think they will be able to correct it to some extent with these laws, albeit hastily passed. The changes are not fundamental, but they may untie this Gordian knot to some extent. According to him, the Denkov,Gabriel cabinet will most probably survive the first 100 days.

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All media also report on the proposal of Sofia Regional Prosecution Office to Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev to submit to the National Assembly a request for lifting the immunity of former prime minister and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria MP Kiril Petkov. The proposal was drawn up in connection with pre-trial proceedings regarding a declaration of citizenship containing false information, which was submitted under Article 110 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, Duma quotes the official prosecution press release as stating. According to the Sofia Regional Prosecution Office’s official position based on the evidence gathered during the investigation, it can be concluded that the declaration submitted by Kiril Petkov concealed the truth – the existence of a dual citizenship, and confirmed the untruth that this person is eligible to be elected as a member of Parliament.

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ECONOMY

Grain growers want a ban on oil imports from Ukraine. At the moment the purchase price of 1 tonne of sunflower is about BGN 630-650 in different regions of the country, which clearly shows that the trend is downward - said Ilia Prodanov - Chairman of the National Association of Grain Growers on BNT. 

According to their calculations, there are about 1 million tonnes of sunflower in warehouses and almost 2 million tonnes of wheat. "They have not been realized due to weak demand and the extremely low price, which is much, much below the cost at which it was produced. Since last year, the price is very much down compared to the cost price and is about 50% down, because at the moment the sunflower that is sitting in the warehouses its cost price is about BGN 1,000 per tonne," Prodanov explained. He explained that currently there is a ban from May 2 on the import of goods from Ukraine, but it concerns only wheat, rapeseed, sunflower and corn, and unrefined and refined oil are not on this ban list and this makes the ban not so workable. Our processors have substituted crude oil for unrefined oil and there has been a huge increase in unrefined oil. According to him, there is enough raw material for oil production till the new crop in 3 months. The quantity available is quite sufficient to satisfy both the domestic and export market.

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Artists, theatre, music and dance artists protest over cut money for culture, Trud reports, quoting bTV. Theatre and music artists are ready to protest over unchanged money for culture. Representatives in the trade unions Komsomol and CT "Podkrepa" as well as other associations are expected to give a press conference, reports bTV. Their concerns are that the money will be cut in the budget for the new calendar year. They insist on increasing the subsidy to performing arts activities. This will allow the directors to meet their increased costs and increase the income of their employees.

Structures of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria and the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour in the field of culture, the Union of Artists and other professional organizations are ready for a protest action to leave Bulgaria without cultural events - theatrical and musical performances, concerts, galleries, museums, community centers and libraries for a week.

The action will take place if their demands that the Culture Ministry's budget for 2023 should not be cut and that the subsidy for cultural institutes and Bulgarian National Radio should be increased are not met, the head of the Culture Federation with the Podkrepa trade union, Kiril Binev, told BNR. The minimum remuneration in the field of culture shrinks even further, eaten by inflation, in the BGN 1,000 - BGN 1,100 bracket for museums, libraries and theatres. It could be said that the sector is in distress, including BNR, with minimum wages constantly catching up with the minimum wage."

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The deputy chairman of the transport committee in Sofia Municipal Council ,Zafir Zarkov, told Telegraf: by the end of the year we will have public bicycles. He explained that at the beginning of last year it was decided to conclude a contract with the selected contractor and to adjust some of the places where to place bike racks. "A new scheme has now been approved for their placement. In the case of bicycles, bike lockers have proven to be the most successful and only system for renting them out," the councillor announced. unlike electric scooters, which are left wherever it is convenient for the user, bicycles will be picked up from a bike locker and returned to another, as is the case anywhere in the world. "We have been provided with 33 spaces in the greater downtown area with the option to add up to 15 more," he said, adding that an analysis will show where the network needs to be supplemented. Initially 400 bikes will be put in place, with the additional spots bringing the total to just over 500. The concessionaire will also be able to sustain itself through the 150 advertising items provided by the municipality in the city.

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"Bulgaria has an exceptional chance - this government will have the largest public resources ever available in Bulgaria's history in terms of investment opportunities through the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Low-interest loans should be activated there. Bulgaria has not yet used this resource. We need to look up a little and know what our long-term vision and goals are for the next 5-10 years." This is what Ruslan Stefanov, Program Director at the Center for the Study of Democracy, told BNR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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By 11:53 on 28.03.2024 Today`s news

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