site.btaMedia Review: November 21

POLITICS

Trud quotes GERB-UDF leader Boyko Borissov's address to GERB mayors and municipal councillors in Silistra District, on the Danube: "Prepare yourselves. It won't take long. Parliamentary elections are coming, and there we will be proof once again that we are the first political force, as we are now". Borissov stated that the situation both in Bulgaria and around the world is dire and called for patience.

The leader of GERB also commented on the calls for Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov's resignation, saying that if anyone was supposed to take responsibility, that would be Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and not Stoyanov. Borissov then alleged that Continue the Change's (CC) calls for Stoyanov's resignation a triggered by their ambitions to take control of the services and be able to conduct unlawful arrests. He concluded: "If the Interior Minister resigns, Denkov must go too". Telegraph quotes Borissov as denying allegation that Stoyanov is "one of our [GERB's] ministers".

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Telegraph quotes Justice Minister Atanas Slavov, who said that the current cabinet has no alternative, "if we want Bulgaria to achieve its European goals, if we want reforms implemented in the country, and if we do not want power to go back to a pro-Putin formation".

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Duma's frontpage quotes an interview for Nova TV, in which Bulgarian Socialist Party MP Rumen Gechev said that the de facto Prime Minister is Delyan Peevski, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) floor leader. According to Gechev, "The signs are very clear. The MRF is driving the train, GERB are the directors, and the performing crew is comprised of CC and DB (Democratic Bulgaria)".

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Interviewed by the Bulgarian National Radio, Daniela Bozhinova MP of CC-DB and a newly elected co-chair of the Green Movement (part of DB), said that her party decided to back the government after a serious debate and has been critical of the ruling coalition ever since. "We have been reassessing our participation in it, but we believe that this is the best solution for the time being," she said. Talking about her party, the MP said green parties are considered liberal or even radical in Bulgaria, and a small green party is always at risk of marginalization because "being green is fashionable and well financed". Bozhinova added that the government's decision to build Units 7 and 8 of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is a red line for her party.

SOFIA MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

CC-DB municipal councillors for Sofia told Trud that they are willing to withdraw Boris Bonev's candidacy for Sofia Municipal Council chair, if that would help the council start working sooner. GERB stated that they would support another candidate raised by CC-DB but not Bonev or another representative of Save Sofia, that coalesced with CC-DB for the mayoral elections.

Plamen Danailov of There Is Such a People told Telegraph that Bonev is not a unifying figure. Danailov criticized Bonev for being a city activist who lacks knowledge and administrative experience.

In an article for Duma, Desi Veleva criticizes the CC-DB and Save Sofia coalition for their "lack of knowledge of the political process and their complete ignorance". According to Veleva, attempts to initiate constructive dialogue by the coalition were made far too late, which doomed them to fail.

CC-DB-Save Sofia municipal councillor for Sofia, Andrey Zografski, said on the Bulgarian National Television's morning block that Bonev's candidacy for chair of the Sofia Municipal Council will be raised for the third time. Zografski said: "With this fragmented municipal council, it is no surprise that for the second time a chair could not be elected. Only two weeks have passed since the elections. The emotions in some political subjects are probably still running high. Our declaration was and still is that we will not govern with GERB - neither covertly nor overtly. However, we expect them to support our candidacy for chair. Boris Bonev is equally distant from all political entities that are represented at national level. He received almost 25,000 personal preferential votes, which clearly shows the support of the citizens for him. His criticism towards GERB has always been justified".

HIJACKED SHIP WITH BULGARIAN CREW

An article in Telegraph comments on the case with the hijacked tanker in the Red Sea, which was operated by 25 crew members, including two Bulgarians. The author comments that on the one hand, the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will use the official channels to contact the Yemeni authorities. On the other hand, quiet diplomacy conducted by the Bulgarian intelligence service is likely to prove more effective in rescuing the two Bulgarians. According to experts, such cases require acting swiftly yet cautiously.

ECONOMY

Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) Vice President and Chief Economist, Lyuboslav Kostov, said on bTV's morning show that if another BGN 600 million is not secured for people's incomes, there will be protests in December. According to the expert, of the BGN 2.2 billion for salaries in 2024, there is actually BGN 375 million left to be directed to the salaries of various public sectors. "The budget is not generous on wages. There should have been a horizontal wage policy of at least 10% to compensate for the projected inflation next year. And there should have been an increase in the real purchasing power of people in the public sector," he said.

Kostov said that BGN 2.2 billion are budgeted for staff costs. However, they are reduced by BGN 800 million to BGN 1.4 billion, which is the actual growth for staff costs in 2024. He further explained that this difference of 800 million will remain in 2023, and the actual growth is split into two items of BGN 700 million each. The first item is directed towards the increase in the monthly minimum wage, which becomes BGN 933 on January 1, 2024. He said: "The second BGN 700 million is the real income policy. Of that, 290 million is for teaching staff, only it does not provide 125% growth, but 8%. There is BGN 28 million for culture and BGN 375 million for everything else: agriculture, health, higher education, state government, transport".

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Duma quotes a poll by Sapio Research, according to which 22% of Bulgarian consumers are planning to spend less on presents over the Christmas holidays in 2023. According to the poll, one in five consumers is not worried by the higher prices of goods and services thanks to the money they saved over the year. 24 Chasa reports further on the same poll, saying that 19% of Bulgarian consumers are planning to save on food and beverages, while 17% will spend less on entertainment.

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24 Chasa's frontpage reports that the average monthly salary in the IT industry has started to decrease. In March and April, the average salary was gravitating just over BGN 4,900. Then it fell to BGN 4,621 in July and to BGN 4,593 in August but then increased to nearly BGN 4,800 in September. Despite the decrease, the average IT salary is still the highest in the country. Employees in the energy sector were the second best paid in September 2023 with an average monthly salary of BGN 3,150.

The reduction of wages in IT occurs in an inflationary environment, and, up until now, wage growth in IT has been able to outpace inflation. The labour market noticed another worrying trend as well - the demand for IT staff began to decline noticeably. The largest job advertisement site in Bulgaria, Jobtiger.bg, reported that there was a 40% decrease in job advertisements in the IT field in October 2023 compared to a year earlier with an average year-on-year decrease of 7%.

TOURISM

Telegraph's frontpage quotes director of the Institute of Analysis and Assessment in Tourism, Rumen Draganov, who said that Bulgarian tourists will spend BGN 143.5 million on travelling in the country throughout the winter holidays. Another BGN 93.6 million will be spent on travelling abroad. Some 580,000 people are expected to travel, or 30,000 more compared to the previous year.

PROTESTS AGAINST BULGARIAN FOOTBALL UNION

In an article for 24 Chasa, Valeri Naydenov writes that protesting against the leadership of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) because of the sad state of Bulgaria's football makes no sense. According to the author: "Blaming the BFU for the sad state of Bulgarian football is like blaming the Union of Bulgarian Journalists for some publications being boring and not worth reading. The BFU is not the 'ministry of football', but something akin to a syndicate of football clubs. And football clubs have owners. Whether good or bad - the business is theirs". The article states that the BFU is responsible to the clubs' shareholders, not the public or the football fans.

Naydenov then criticizes football hooligans for their participation in political unrest, which regularly rocks Bulgarian democracy. He concludes: "[...] football hooligans are proven enemies of democracy. Thanks to them, any public protest can be turned into savagery".

HOME AFFAIRS

Mediapool.bg quotes an article by the Financial Times on the Bulgarian defence industry, which criticizes Bulgaria for corruption and impunity among Bulgarian prosecutors, lack of investigations and Russian influence in parties, security services and media. According to the British daily, these problems are among the reasons cited by several European states for blocking Bulgaria's accession to Schengen.

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Trud's frontpage reports on a group busted by the police in cooperation with the National Revenue Agency and the prosecuting magistracy that allegedly evaded paying some BGN 30 million of VAT when importing luxury cars into the country.

HEALTHCARE

In a spread interview for Trud, Vanio Mitev, President of the General Assembly of the Medical University in Sofia, said that Bulgaria may be the first country in the world that has successfully reduced COVID-19 to outpatient treatment, thanks to a protocol proposed by medical experts and approved by the Ministry of Health. Mitev said: "The widely promoted home treatment drug Molnupiravir has mutagenic potential and is poorly effective. It reduced hospitalizations by less than 30%. Only at the beginning of this year, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gathered courage and refused its registration. Merck appealed, but in June this year withdrew its request for approval and, in Europe at least, this saga is over". Mitev also recommended treating COVID with Colchicine over Paxlovid, as the former costs between BGN 20 and 30, while the latter could run at more than BGN 2,150. According to Mitev, taking Colchicine as prescribed could reduce COVID patients' hospitalization by nearly 100%.

ENVIRONMENT

24 Chasa reports on an investigation conducted in Lake Varna and Lake Beloslav, on the Black Sea, that lasted 21 months. Samples of the two lakes show that in some areas of the ponds, copper levels exceed European standards tenfold. The water is also polluted by iron and oil byproducts, which is most likely caused by the significant number of sunken ships in the lakes. Other polluting factors include the local industries dumping waste in the water and construction activities.