site.btaMedia Review: February 19

No single issue dominates the Monday media. The front pages of newspapers have stories about the most affordable town in Bulgaria, the Socialists' fight against poverty, the rising price of housing loans, among others.

TRADE IN INFLUENCE IN THE JUDICIARY

24 Chasa carries an analysis saying that the murder of Martin "the Notary" Bozhanov in January has further shed light on dependencies in the judiciary and corruption schemes. 

Speaking on the Nova TV morning show, judge Vladislava Tsarigradska of the Pleven District Court said that she has received a threat following her interview on the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) on Sunday and that it came from the head of the prosecution service’s press centre, Veselin Ivanov. Ivanov allegedly told her, through a mutual acquaintance, to "shut up".  Several years ago, Tsarigradska complained of being threatened by Bozhanov when she was on the court panel trying a fraud case against him. She filed an official complaint but the investigation was later dropped and nothing followed from it, according to her own account.  In her BNR interview last weekend, Tsarigradska said she believes that Martin "the Notary" Bozhanov had secretly collaborated with the Interior Ministry. She stressed that the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for National Security fail to provide convincing answers to prove her wrong. The judge noted that all institutional activities in the high-profile Bozhanov Case are "an imitation". In her words, the truth must be sought so that the judiciary can be rid of people who have no place in it. Tsarigradska said that if the public does not exert enough pressure on the institutions to do their job, certain groups of people will carry on with the blackmail exchange. She noted that the whole truth about the mechanisms used must be brought to light and measures should be taken to ensure that this is no longer possible.

SOFIA MUNICIPAL COUNCIL 

On the morning programme of the Bulgarian National Television, Boris Bonev, municipal councillor of Save Sofia which is the local partner of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), directly addressed GERB leader Boyko Borissov by saying: "If he thinks that now he will shirk responsibility for what is happening in the [Sofia] Municipal Council, if he thinks that he will get away with the 'We are the opposition - nothing depends on us' attitude, I'm sorry, Mr. Borissov, you're wrong". Bonev said that the largest group in the Sofia Municipal Council - CC-DB - cannot be "left without any of the important committees because it is neither democratic nor right". The chairmanship of the "important committees" in the Municipal Council, to use Bonev's words, went to GERB and the smaller political groups. According to Bonev, a failure to elect a chairperson of the Council would have been the Council’s biggest problem.

After several months of failing to elect its leader, on February 8, the Sofia Municipal Council voted to make Tsvetomir Petrov of CC-DB and Save Sofia its Chair. Petrov will hold the post until the end of the political season, which concludes with the last session of the Council in July, the political groups told the media prior to the vote.

Speaking on bTV’s morning show, municipal conuncillor Vanya Grigorova of BSP said that even though a Chair had been elected, the Council’s work is still not going well. "It is a matter of morality because CC-DB were the ones who were saying that we must now, immediately, urgently vote for their candidate so that the Sofia Municipal Council can start working. And after the colleagues voted for their candidate and he was elected, they decided that they had to block the work because they wanted all five committees. The committees were distributed according to the electoral weight of each group of municipal councillors. CC-DB had to get five committees, that is, chairmanships of five committees. The problem is that they insisted on taking all the major committees, all the major ones," Grigorova said.

ECONOMY

In Trud, financial analyst Dimitar Chobanov says that a downward trend was observed in industrial production in 2023, adding that it decreases by 8.7% on average annually. He adds that there was also a drop in the mining and quarrying industry (13.5%), manufacturing (4.5%), and electricity, heat and gas production and distribution (28.4%). 

***

Citing Bulgarian National Bank data, Telegraph reports that Bulgarians working abroad sent BGN 1.431 billion to their families in Bulgaria in 2023. This is an increase of 27% compared to 2022. The largest remittances are sent from Germany, the US, Spain, and the UK. 

***

Citing Institute for Market Economic data, 24 Chasa writes that Bulgarians reach 60% of the income and living standard of the average European citizen. The daily notes that Bulgaria is catching up with the European economy by 2% annually despite the crises of recent years. If this country maintains its catch-up pace of last three years, it will be able to reach 70% and over of the average purchasing power of Europeans in 4 years’ time. However, now it is currently 8% short of that goal, the paper says. 

***

24 Chasa leads on an article saying that the northwestern town of Vratsa is the most affordable to live and work in. According to the daily’s calculations based on the ratio between the average wage in 13 districts and the prices of 15 goods and services, Sofia and Plovdiv stand out as the most expensive cities in Bulgaria. 

***

Telegraph’s leading article says that housing loans will go up by some BGN 10,000 with an interest rate increase of 0.25%. Using the financial services website MoitePari.bg loan calculator, the daily has made this estimate based on an assumed EUR 100,000 loan and the current average interest rate of 2.6%. The paper recalls that bankers and experts forecast an increase in mortgage interest rates by between 0.25% and 0.5% by the end of 2024. Desislava Nikolova, financial analyst at MoitePari.bg, tells Telegraph that despite rising interest rates in Europe, Bulgaria maintains one of the lowest average rates. The daily also reports that property sales decline while the prices go up. 

TRANSPORT, ROAD SAFETY

In a two-page interview for Telegraph, Bulgarian MEP Petar Vitanov elaborates on a proposal for a road safety legislative package in the drafting of which he is actively involved. The package contains three directives aimed at improving road safety, a problem that has been identified as very serious in Europe and especially in countries like Bulgaria and Romania where road accident rates are twice as high as the European average. One of the directives concerns changes in the rules of issuing driving licences, the second one has to do with imposing penalties on non-resident drivers for serious offences, including EU-wide driving license ban. A driving ban currently only applies in the country where it was imposed, Vitanov recalls. The third directive is aimed at improving cooperation between countries in the field of serious road accidents. The MEP notes that the proposals have been adopted by the European Parliament at first reading and further progress is expected following the European elections in June 2024. 

***

24 Chasa has a first-page article about the Zheleznitsa tunnel on the Struma Motorway, which is about to become operational on Tuesday after a nearly two-year delay and make transit to Greece faster. Described as the longest and most state-of-the-art tunnel in Bulgaria, the facility is the first tunnel in this county that complies with all European requirements. 

ENERGY 

In its lead story, Trud cites a report by Bulgaria’s natural gas supplier Bulgargaz saying that a 13-year contract was signed with Turkiye's Botas energy company during the caretaker government in January 2023.  The contract was signed following a meeting between Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on December 9, 2022, and two rounds of talks at the level of ministries and energy companies, despite Bulgargaz’s warnings of unfavourable conditions for Bulgaria. The daily notes that the Bulgarian Finance and Foreign Ministries have not seen the agreement which “limits the possibilities for an informed decision”.  Commenting on the matter, energy expert Yavor Kuiumdjiev told Trud that there is no point of this contract as it only binds Bulgargaz to pay “colossal sums of money” for many years to come and does not solve any of Bulgaria’s problems. 

CABINET ROTATION, MORE POLITICS

Interviewed by Trud, political scientist Stoycho Stoychev comments on the upcoming Government rotation on March 6, saying that Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov of CC-DB and Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel have no say in the cabinet configuration. Stoychev says that it is GERB leader Boyko Borissov and CC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov who call the shots, adding that the act of leaving Denkov and Gabriel to decide who will take what post is an indication that Borissov and Petkov are currently negotiating on the rotation framework and do not want to make it public. Asked whether the rotation is likely to take place after the presidential elections in the US on November 5, Stoychev is adamant that this is a talking point used by people who keep saying that the current government in Bulgaria is "colonial and depends on President Biden". Stoychev notes that it makes no difference for the US who is who in the Bulgarian Cabinet because what is important is the parliamentary majority. “The fact that some members of the Cabinet will change their portfolios is not a problem at all. The people are still the same,” he adds. 

***

Duma leads with an interview with Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Korneliya Ninova, who says that water and mobile services price hikes are among the problems that her party is actively tackling. The interview is titled "BSP in Battle with Poverty".

ALEXEI NAVALNY

24 Chasa has a leading story titled “FSB Agents Visiting Navalny Prior to His Death?”, citing the Russian human rights organization gulagu.net. In a signed commentary also related to the passing of Navalny, journalist Ivan Garelov said that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin clears the field for his 2024 re-election bid. Garelov notes that Putin has surpassed even Joseph Stalin with his cruelty. 

In a Trud commentary, journalist Kevork Kevorkian says that Putin has won a lot from the interview he gave to US talk show host Tucker Carlson in early February, but Navalny’s death has effectively crossed out all these gains. Kevorkian notes that logical thinking easily gives way to conspiracy theories and one such theory is that Putin’s opponents might have killed Navalny. “Given the damage that Putin will incur, any prisoner would take on the role of executioner,” the journalist notes. He says that “nobody believes the Russians but it is possible that Navalny did not die a violent death".  

Sega reports on the protests following Navalny’s death. The paper cites the OVD-Info human rights organization, according to which at least 273 people were detained during the protests in 21 Russian cities. 

In the morning programme of Bulgarian National Television, three commentators discussed the impact of the death of Alexei Navalny in Russia and beynd (politician Valentina Vassileva-Filadelfevs and journalists Yavor Siderov and Andrei Zakharov). Zakharov said: "There is no one to continue Alexei Navalny's work in Russia. […] For Russian people, Navalny was like a good father who leads them to the bright, wonderful future of Russia." According to Valentina Vassileva-Filadelfevs, Putin has a huge problem right now. “If his body is handed over to his family and the funeral takes place in Russia, it will be a memorial to freedom. And if it is claimed by his family and taken to where they are, imagine a Navalny burial ceremony at which the world's political elite will likely gather." Siderov believes that the Russian authorities are holding Navalny's body out of fear. "Navalny's death comes at a time when Putin's regime was on the offensive. After the Tucker Carlson interview, which from the point of view of the Russian propaganda machine was a big hit, Putin hoped to clean up his image and gain sympathy for the presidential election. But as tragic as this death is for the opposition, it is also consolidating. From now on, Navalny will be seen as a symbolic figure," Siderov added.

BULGARIA’S AID TO UKRAINE

Mediapool.bg writes that Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria will demand a parliamentary hearing and a Defence Ministry report on what has been done by Bulgaria to help Ukraine. MP Ivaylo Mirchev commented on Monday that "our country can help Ukraine a lot, but this going about it slow because of the less than efficient work of the Defense Ministry administration". Defence Minister Todor Tagarev is constantly criticized by GERB leader Boyko Borissov and Movement for Right and Freedoms floor leader Delyan Peevski, including for failing to communicate to the public the need for direct military aid to Ukraine. Now Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria voice their own complaints about the Defence Ministry’s actions, which raises new questions about Tagarev's place after the government rotation in March, says mediapool.bg.