site.btaMedia Review: November 10

All dailies report on three recent stories: European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi's visit to Bulgaria, the recent resignations of senior members of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and Vanya Grigorova (Bulgarian Socialist Party) deciding to challenge in court Vassil Terziev's (Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria) election victory in Sofia.

POLITICS

An article in Telegraph quotes MPs who commented on GERB-UDF leader Boyko Borissov's critique towards GERB's non-coalition partner, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). Borissov was dissatisfied with the way the parliamentary majority is functioning and suggested that the ministers should report to the parliamentary committees weekly. CC-DB's Nikola Minchev commented Borissov's suggestion saying: "If it [Borissov's suggestion] is a form of establishing a clearly defined decision-making mechanism, that is alright. However, if it is a way to allocate seats between parties within the executive, then no". Minchev is adamant that no ministers can be swapped during the rotation other than Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariya Gabriel, as this is the only change that has been agreed upon.

Trud adds to Minchev's quote as saying that ministers can be swapped only after a mutual agreement among the ruling parties, which is missing at the moment.

Asked whether there is a chance of the Cabinet being toppled, he said that he sees no better alternative to it and added: "We must all make an effort to have this government keep working".

Another CC-DB MP, Vladislav Panev, said: "The government needs to work at a higher speed. Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov's assessment of his work in the Council of Ministers is excellent, but it is not excellent for all other ministries. There are problems in many sectors".

In a spread interview for Trud published on Friday, political analyst Stoycho Stoychev shared his belief that MP Delyan Peevski is unlikely to become the new floor leader of the MRF. Stoychev said: "I think he has another project for himself. He sees himself as a prime minister, for example, not as a party leader. He could hardly fit into that position". The analyst added that the party itself is unlikely to accept Peevski as a leader the way it could accept former Kardzhali mayor Hasan Azis. Peevski was announced as the sole floor leader of the MRF on Wednesday.

Telegraph and Trud quote MRF Floor Leader Delyan Peevski who said: "We do not want any ministers. Neither now, nor during the rotation. We do not want any deputy ministers. Neither now, nor during the rotation".

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This week's Capital entitled The Wilting of GERB is dedicated to the results of the local elections. The magazine points out that while GERB did receive the highest number of votes, which secured them the most mayors and municipal councillors, the party did register some significant losses, such as failing to have their candidates elected in major cities like Sofia, Varna, Pazardzhik and Blagoevgrad. The article reads: "[GERB] lost its control over local government in many regions. This further disrupts the symbiosis between central and local government that was the foundation of the party's success. This is a likely reasons why Borissov wants to renegotiate the current coalition and wants more participation of GERB in the government". The article predicts that in the coming days and weeks, the tension in political life will be formed between the desire to keep the coalition but to restructure it.

The text mentions the relative success of the left-leaning candidate in Sofia, Vanya Grigorova, who reached run-offs, which she lost by a small margin. That success created political gravity around her and raised the tension with BSP leader Korneliya Ninova.

The article asks a final question: Were these elections fair after all? The answer it offers is the following: "The formal answer is probably 'yes', because the elections are currently considered legitimately held. However, the more extended answer is different, because the voting started with manipulation. GERB and the MRF's plot to eliminate machine voting was implemented by SANS [State Agency for National Security], the CEC [Central Election Commission] and the Supreme Administrative Court. All this led to a record number of invalid ballots - the vote of every fifth person who went to the polls turned out to be in vain, according to a study by the Institute for Public Environment Development. The attack on machine voting is a prime example of the undermining of trust in the electoral process and it has, of course, had its impact - an embarrassingly low turnout at the ballot box. In Plovdiv, for example, the new mayor was elected with only 37,000 votes in a turnout of less than 25%. The low turnout combined with the high number of invalid ballots had another effect - they lowered the threshold for entering the municipal councils, which caused many smaller formations to enter them. All this is a prerequisite for difficult formation of majorities."

In an article for Capital, mayor elect Terziev states that in four years, he wants to have Sofia's brand be "The city of big opportunities", to turn the city into a place where businesses and culture alike thrive. Terziev wrote: "As someone who comes from the technology business, technology and data will become a central part of decision making. The goal is to have those decisions based not on opinions, but on something that everyone understands fairly unambiguously".

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Duma quotes Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Deputy Chair Atanas Zafirov as saying on Nova TV that Bulgaria is as far away from Schengen as it was at the beginning of the "assemblage" government. Assemblage is a word that is often used for the government of CC-DB and GERB (and its support from MRF) when the speaker wants to underscore its perceived unprincipled nature. According to Zafirov, the definition of national security suggests that the necessary preconditions are created for a nation to develop its welfare, but also for the state to fulfil its national priorities. The MP suggested that these preconditions are missing today. He added: "Half a year [since the current government has been in power] is not a short time. There was enough time to take measures, there was a commitment for 1,200 border police officers. Nothing was implemented. How did the Minister of Defence respond? That he would send 50 troops. Fifty against 50,000, figuratively speaking".

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24 Chasa, bTV and the Bulgarian National Radio write about MP Slavena Tocheva of GERB-UDF, who asked to leave the legislature, as reported by Parliament's press service on Wednesday. Tocheva said that it was her own decision to tender her resignation, as she felt she had to assume responsibility for former Varna Mayor Ivan Portnih's unsuccessful reelection campaign. While Tocheva claims that the decision to resign was her own, 24 Chasa alleges that she had been pressured to do so by GERB-UDF leader Boyko Borissov.

ECONOMY

24 Chasa writes about a planned agreement that would have mobile operator Vivacom acquire satellite television, internet and mobile operator Bulsatcom for EUR 127 million. United Group, Vivacom's parent company, said that this move is part of their long-term strategy to increase and solidify their market presence in Bulgaria. Vivacom's competitors in Bulgaria, A1 and Yettel, protested the acquisition and filed a complaint with the Commission on Protection of Competition. One of their motives was that it would result in Vivacom owning more than 60% of the paid television market share in the country. Another was that Bulsatcom never requested approval for the acquisition, as Bulgarian law requires, when the revenues of the two companies exceed BGN 25 million. The watchdog has launched an investigation into the move, however, no results have been publicized so far.

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Trud's frontpage reports of proposed amendments to the VAT Act that have been submitted to the Council of Ministers. If the amendments get passed, the current fine of BGN 5 for customers, who have not obtained a receipt after a purchase and kept it until leaving the premises of the shop, will be doubled to BGN 10. The current law also provides for fines ranging from BGN 100 to 500 for sellers that give no receipts to clients who are persons and fines ranging from BGN 500 to 2,000 for clients that are companies or sole proprietorships. The amendments propose to have these fines doubled as well.

DEFENCE

Duma's frontpage is dedicated to an alleged conflict of interest that involves Defence Minister Todor Tagarev. The matter was first brought up by BSP MP Rumen Gechev during a briefing in Parliament and is about a public procurement of the delivery of unmanned aircraft TERES-02 announced by the Ministry of Defence in 2021. One month after Tagarev was appointed Minister of Defence, the contractor chosen was announced to be Bulgarian Unmanned Aircraft Systems, an alliance of companies. The CEO of one of the companies in this alliance, Teleris OOD, is a partner with Tagarev's wife in another company, Prokom OOD, while Tagarev himself is still listed as a consultant on that company's website, Gechev said. Gechev said that the value of the contract is about BGN 11 million and that there is information that the Defence Minister's office tried to exert pressure on the directorate related to the deal to change the value of the project.

HOME AFFAIRS

Telegraph's frontpage quotes an article by the German tabloid newspaper Bild, which reports that Bulgarian prostitutes in Germany are among the most sought after in their industry. Bild used data mostly from the state Baden-Wurttemberg in Southwest Germany. A prostitute there can earn up to EUR 10,000 a month. While prostitution is legal in Germany, it can often go hand-in-hand with human trafficking. The number of registered prostitutes in Baden-Wurttemberg in 2023 is nearly 3,500, a 26% increase year-on-year.

SPORTS

24 Chasa reports that Bulgarian football legend Dimitar Berbatov criticized Minister of Sports Dimitar Iliev for refusing to meet with some 150 football clubs that had been expelled from the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU). Iliev had initially agreed to the meeting, however, according to Berbatov, he later budged after pressure from the BFU, who insisted that he did not interfere. Berbatov is adamant that the Ministry should be a moderator in this matter, as it is the party that issued a licence to the BFU.

24 Chasa and the Bulgarian National Television quote legendary footballer and majority owner of club Levski quote Nasko Sirakov, who seems to agree with Berbatov by declaring: "I am absolutely against the current management of the BFU," which is headed by former teammate of Sirakov, Borislav Mihaylov.