site.btaMedia Review: February 9

POLITICS

The argument between GERB and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) over who should nominate the new foreign minister after the government rotation on March 6 is purely political, it is not tied to a change of foreign policy priorities, former foreign minister Ivailo Kalfin told BNT. On Thursday, GERB leader Boyko Borissov allowed that the foreign ministry could be taken over by another GERB representative and not by Mariya Gabriel, who will be prime minister.

"I do not understand the point, beyond the purely party sense, of this dispute. I am not hearing a dispute over some change of foreign policy priorities. PM Denkov's argument is absolutely unacceptable - that he wants the voice of the CC-DB to be heard in Europe. I have been a foreign minister and I do not think that my voice was that of a party leader when I defended the interests of the country," Ivailo Kalfin said.

He stressed that Bulgaria's foreign policy is represented and determined by the Council of Ministers and not only by the foreign minister.

"The foreign minister is not a storyteller. He is a minister who represents the state and is expected to have initiatives, something that has been totally lacking in the state for the last 15 years. When we joined the EU we had a number of regional initiatives, in the Balkans and in the Black Sea. We were visible in European politics. Gradually this initiative disappeared and the office acquired a purely representative function," he said.

According to BNR, GERB leader Borissov said on Friday that if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not remain with GERB, there will be no “assemblage”, there will be no rotation, and it will be time for early elections.

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Following Thursday’s election of municipal councillor Tsvetomir Petrov of Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (Save Sofia) as Chair of the Sofia Municipal Council (SMC), municipal councillor from GERB-UDF Anton Hekimyan said on Nova TV, "What happened last night was unprecedented and extremely shameful for the SMC," on Friday morning, following a sitting of the SMC that lasted nearly 13 hours on Thursday.

In order to elect the deputy chairs of the SMC, as well as the members of the committees, the councillors extended their debates. An hour before the end of the sitting, Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (Save Sofia) left the hall, dissatisfied with the distribution of committees, having received only one out of fourteen.

In Hekimyan's words, the CC-DB have abdicated and shown their inability to govern Sofia. "In the last three months the capital has been hostage to the power ambitions of Boris Bonev, to his agreements with Mayor Vassil Terziev and to the weak and ineffective policies of CC-DB," Hekimyan further said.

Dnevnik adds that the satisfaction of CC-DB with the finally successful election of the chairman of the SMC lasted only a few hours after the coalition lost the key committees in the election of their leadership and will eventually govern only one.

Councillors from GERB and BSP will lead the most important standing committees and even There Is Such a People heads two. Thus, in practice, with the help of small groups, they have taken control of the Council, as decisions on important issues are prepared and voted on precisely in the committees.

"We've seen that both in the state and there [SMC], they can't get it done, the Mayor can't make a majority… It's time for mayoral elections," GERB leader Boyko Borissov told journalists on the sidelines of the National Assembly after Thursday's election of deputy chairmen of the SMC, Trud writes.

Vazrazhdane excluded three of its MPs who refused to resign because they had nominated SMC councillors, who on Thursday supported Tsvetomir Petrov as interim chairman.

Capital weekly: If there is a winner from the dysfunctional city council, it is the Sofia Urban Mobility Centre. It continues to award controversial contracts worth millions to well-known companies that now have new owners. They are opening up to a dubious and possibly corrupt pattern involving the names of municipal councillors.

ECONOMY

Protesting farmers will block the road to North Macedonia at the Gyueshevo checkpoint around noon on Friday. Tractors and heavy machinery are already positioned on the side of the road in the area of the Kyustendil bypass on the way to Gyueshevo. Farmers are on standby to protest and block junctions due to ongoing negotiations with the authorities without success, BNT reports.

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Rosen Kosturkov MP of CC-DB and deputy head of the agriculture committee in the National Assembly, told BNT, "We have increased the agriculture budget by BGN 500 million compared to last year. Even if we had included another 200-300 million, there is no guarantee that the protests would not have happened. Quite serious changes are being made to seven laws. In the last two years, several governments have changed. Agricultural laws are never a priority in Parliament."

Kosturkov stressed that only farmers who are really at risk must be assisted. Commenting on calls for the resignation of the agriculture minister, Kosturkov said he should be given a chance.

“We have increased the agriculture budget by more than BGN 500 million compared to last year. The sector will be supported with 4.1 billion,” the MP said.

In his words, the farmers' protests are not only about money, they are about a comprehensive look and revision of the agricultural policy not only in Bulgaria, but also in Europe.

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Trud quotes BSP leader Korneliya Ninova, who said in Parliament that the party’s battle against unfair price increases by mobile operators continues.

"Many people do not have the opportunity to hire lawyers, to pay expenses. They don't have enough money to pay for their phones, let alone file lawsuits. That's why we are organizing a class action lawsuit. We have prepared a model complaint which we will upload and anyone can fill it in and submit it to the Consumers’ Federation. There will be no fee. We are taking the responsibility to file a collective action to declare unfair clauses in the contracts of mobile operators, as well as to compensate those who have already paid the higher fees," Ninova explained.

According to the president of the Federation, Emil Georgiev, the Bulgarian consumer is the most distressed in the whole EU, for which he blamed the state authorities and the inaction of Parliament. "For years the National Assembly has not complied with the directives of the European Commission. It is written that in case of such unfair trade practices the penalty is at least EUR 2 million. In our case, the maximum penalty is BGN 50,000. This is a paradise for anyone who violates the laws and directives," Georgiev added.

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Capital weekly: A year after the introduction of the euro, inflation in Croatia is already halved and the economy and incomes are growing at one of the highest rates in the EU. The most important positive effects include lower financial risk and transaction costs, more competitive businesses, and higher credit ratings. The effect of the euro on inflation is minimal, thanks in part to Zagreb's measures against unfair practices by traders, for which Bulgaria also needs to prepare.

CRIME

Capital weekly: Martin Bozhanov, aka the Notary (who was not a notary), his "circle of interests" and possible spheres of action have been known for years. He has been the subject of journalistic investigations, complaints from judges, public stories and legends. It seems, however, that the Bulgarian institutions never wanted to actively engage with him and uncover his activities during his lifetime.

After the Notary's murder, an avalanche of information and demonstration of action began from all those who had so far ignored the story. The implicated institutions and politicians have virtually staged a public lynching of a corpse, and their actions seem to be entirely focused on PR and covering their tracks. The goal is the same as it has always been: never to get to the bottom of the problem - a well-organised apparatus between politicians, magistrates and intermediaries. If it were not so, the efforts would be focused on why Martin Bozhanov was killed. Only such an investigation, superimposed next to all the already public facts, would make sense for busting the shady network.

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After multiple alerts from drivers about false positive field tests and delayed blood drug test results, a BNT team checked how samples are processed at the Research Institute of Forensic Sciences. It turns out that the problems are related to both a lack of specialists and the increasing number of samples to be tested.