site.btaMedia Review: January 4

POLITICS

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Founder and Honorary Chair Ahmed Dogan is obviously trying to position the party farther away from Ankara's influence, political analyst Parvan Simeonov of Gallup International says in an interview for MediaPool.bg. This, he says, can be deduced from Mustafa Karadayi's sudden resignation as MRF leader in November and Dogan's proposal for Delyan Peevski to become co-leader of the party. The role of the other proposed co-leader, Dzhevdet Chakarov, will likely be to cushion the move away from Turkiye and to reassure the MRF members.

Dogan has obviously heeded the voice of the MRF grassroots chapters, which were probably not so enthusiastic about a sharp turn which could install an ethnic Bulgarian (Peevski) as sole leader of the party, the analysis goes. "We should remember that the MRF is essentially the party of an ethnic group in Bulgaria. It began as an ethnic party," the analyst says. He notes that Dogan has always maintained a prudent and detached position on Ankara, and anyone in the MRF who has ever tried to change that has been removed. According to the analyst, Dogan's warning that the MRF is becoming a "corporate" party is a reproach to the former leadership of Mustafa Karadayi, and also sounds like a warning about Peevski's "business line".

Looking at the foreign policy implications of Dogan's statement, the analyst says: "Without a doubt, Dogan is telling us that the world, as we know it, is fading away, and that Bulgaria is at the borderline between the Russian and the Turkish spheres of influence. In this context, his exclamation, 'God help us', is a rather worrying message."

FOREIGN RELATIONS

According to a conspiracy theory which spread across Bulgaria in the closing days of 2023, Austria wanted to return 6,000 refugees to Bulgaria in exchange for agreeing to admit Bulgaria into the Schengen area by air and water, 24 Chasa says. The most vocal proponent of this conspiracy theory has been Vazrazhdane party leader Kostadin Kostadinov. The government described the allegation as fake news. It said that Austria returned a mere 113 refugees to Bulgaria in 2023 under the Dublin Regulation. Compliance with the Dublin Regulation is the only condition set by Austria - no new conditions have been accepted by Bulgaria. This transpired from the trilateral document between Sofia, Bucharest and Vienna.

Which of the two numbers, 6,000 or 113, is more realistic in 2024? Neither of them is realistic, the daily says. The number 6,000 has not been named officially by any Austrian government representative, but after a report in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard on December 11, the number began its own independent existence on the Bulgarian internet. An annex to the decision on Bulgaria's and Romania's admission into Schengen only says that the two countries may not limit the number of refugees returned from Austria. As for the "magical" number 6,000, its meaning is anybody's guess, the paper says.

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Ex-foreign minister Ivailo Kalfin, who currently serves as Executive Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), said on the morning talk show of bTV that Bulgaria's partial entry to Schengen, approved by the EU Council on December 30 and involving the lifting of air and water borders, does not apply to rivers. Kalfin said: "If you board a ship at Ruse and travel [up the Danube River] to Vienna, you will be crossing land borders. Admitting Bulgaria into Schengen by water applies only to maritime borders. If you fly, there will be no passport control - planes will land within the Schengen sections of airports. You will still have to show your identity card to board a plane."

Kalfin went on to say: "Schengen membership is about making decisions. Cyprus is preparing for membership. The question is, will Bulgaria have a voting right about Cyprus' accession? Are we going to issue Schengen visas? Will we have full access to the visa information system and the Schengen information system, which are related to police cooperation? As far as I know from private sources, yes, we will. I wonder why the government is not explaining that."

According to Kalfin, the delay of Bulgaria's Schengen entry by 12 years has set a precedent, while phased entry has happened before. Now that Bulgaria is a member of the Schengen community, it has much stronger leverage to push for lifting land borders (including river borders) as well, Kalfin said.

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The cabinet must resign because it has lied about Bulgaria's entry to the Schengen border-free area, Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Kornelia Ninova said, as quoted on page one in Duma. Ninova was commenting on the declaration signed by Bulgaria, Romania and Austria giving the green light for the two Balkan neighbours' partial accession to Schengen by lifting air and sea borders in March 2024. "We are governed by incompetent people who betray the national interests," Ninova said. She argued that no other country has been faced with such Schengen membership requirements as Bulgaria. "We have met all conditions and we deserve full integration into Schengen without contrived divisions - by air and sea but no land," she said.

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Cuban Ambassador to Bulgaria Marieta Garcia Jordan has been interviewed by Duma on the occasion of her country's Liberation Day, January 1. The diplomat says the Cubans are celebrating January 1 with the same enthusiasm that filled their former longtime leader Fidel Castro in the drive to improve the socialist system. To the Cubans, Fidel is still alive, she says. Garcia Jordan aspires to deepen Cuba's cooperation with Bulgaria. She has many plans and ideas for 2024. She underscores the historic bond which the two countries have maintained for several decades. The ambassador notes that her government wants to intensify all forms of exchange with Bulgaria.

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"Russia Loses Second Cold War in Bulgaria," caps an analysis by Svetoslav Terziev on SegaBG.com. The author says that Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova has had no positive results to report to Moscow from her work in 2023. The cables she sent back home did nothing but spark angry reactions from Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who, on top of everything else, felt personally offended when, on November 30, her superior Sergei Lavrov had to bypass Bulgaria on his way to Skopje for an OSCE meeting.

Officially, the only mission of diplomacy is to improve relations between nations. It is the military's job to worsen them. In this sense one may say that Mitrofanova accomplished nothing in 2023, and Russia's bad relations with Bulgaria should be attributed to the militant upper crust in Moscow, the analyst says.

JUSTICE

Fifteen judges have recused themselves from hearing a case in which an 18-year-old girl was severely beaten and disfigured with a box cutter in the southern city of Stara Zagora, 24 Chasa says in its main story. The brutal behaviour of the assailant, who is charged with violence, coercion, bodily harm and a murder threat, triggered a strong public reaction and street protests in the summer of 2023.

The prosecution submitted an indictment against the suspect to the Regional Court of Stara Zagora on December 15. The case was allocated to a judge on the random assignment rule, but he declined to hear it. Withdrawals by other judges followed, three of them occurring on January 3 alone. The strong public sentiment against the suspect may be one of the reasons for the judges' withdrawals, the daily speculates. The judges are not required to explain their decision at this stage. If all judges of the Regional Court of Stara Zagora recuse themselves from the case, it will be referred to the Supreme Court of Cassation, which will allocate it to another regional court.

ECONOMY

The prices of second-hand vehicles have increased by between 20% and 30% since the coronavirus pandemic, Automobile Importers Association Vice President Lyubomir Dorossiev said, as quoted in the main story in Trud. Meanwhile, the prices of new vehicles have risen by between 30% and 50%. New cars have become too expensive for many Europeans, so they keep using their old ones. This has created a shortage of used, quality vehicles which can be bought in Western Europe and imported to Bulgaria.

About 80% of new vehicles sold in Bulgaria still run on petrol, but the highest sales growth has been reported for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the paper says, citing data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Former Sofia Traffic Police chief Tencho Tenev says the government is considering ways to support people of modest income to replace their old cars with new ones. He notes that, in some other European countries, those who buy new electric vehicles enjoy preferential treatment.