site.btaMedia Review: March 7

POLITICS

President Rumen Radev will announce the schedule for consultations with the parliamentary groups, BNT reports. This will largely determine how much time GERB-UDF and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) will have for negotiations, depending on the pace of the constitutional procedure for electing a new government.

"Passions are heating up and it is not clear whether the leaders of the outgoing coalition parties are bluffing, whether they are playing political poker, whether they are raising the stakes for the upcoming extension of the joint government, whether they are mobilising their voters for new elections," President Radev said.

In his words, the coalition partners themselves are confused at the moment, which is evident from their reactions to the cabinet resignation vote.

After the unanimous acceptance in Parliament of the government's resignation, the head of State is due to meet all parliamentary parties. He will then hand a government-forming mandate to GERB-UDF as the largest parliamentary group, who will have a week to propose a cabinet line-up.

According to the procedure, if unsuccessful, CC-DB will be given a mandate and a week to implement it. The third attempt allows the President to choose who to hand the final mandate to and there is no deadline for presenting a government line-up.

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After the start of the procedure for the formation of the government and after the vote on the resignation of the Denkov cabinet, there is no normative prescription that clearly says in what order the President should act. The form and manner in which the consultations will be conducted is up to him, Orlin Kolev, a doctor of constitutional law, said on Nova TV.

Although there is no deadline, the consultations should be held in a timely manner, he added. The procedure between the first and the second handing of the exploratory mandate is the same, the difference is in the candidate, Kolev added.

He said that if new regulators are not elected, the current ones should stay until they are replaced, or their term should be renewed.

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The “assemblage” [GERB, CC-DB and MRF who rule as a coalition but won’t admit it lest they anger their electorates – ed. note] will continue to exist and all that happens is a circus, according to Anton Kutev, the former spokesman of the two caretaker governments, who was a guest of the morning show of bTV.

"The main question now is whether the assemblage will remain in power. That's why I carry in my folder a billion and a half reasons why it will stay in power. We are talking about the Hemus motorway, which I have tried to talk about several times already, but now we have a reason - these are several questions from MP Stanislav Balabanov, which the minister in charge answered," he explained.

Anton Kutev stressed that from the answers of the Minister of Regional Development, which have been made public, it is clear that under the 2018 contract for lots 1 to 6 of the Hemus motorway, which is for just over one billion leva, almost all the money has been spent, and the implementation is less than 20%.

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With the resignation of Prime Minister Denkov things were forced. The leaders should sit down very quickly if they are going to hold talks and decide - are we going to elections or will there be a new version of the so-called assemblage, Evelina Slavkova from the Trend Research Centre said in an interview with BNR. According to her, the President has no argument to delay the procedure. However, it shortens the opportunity for political leaders to have a complex conversation.

Boyko Borissov is currently in a stronger negotiating position. GERB will logically want to change the configuration of the Council of Ministers, she noted.

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The Congress of the European People's Party, held in Bucharest, will elect the party's leading candidate for the presidency of the European Commission, BNR reports.

GERB leader Boyko Borissov, who heads the Bulgarian delegation, announced that they will support Ursula von der Leyen for a second term.

On Thursday, Borissov and outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel will address the congress delegates.

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In the future EP there will be different proportions between pro-European and Eurosceptic forces. There will be no new majority of anti-European formations that want to weaken the EU or want their own country to leave the EU.

This opinion was expressed to BNR by former EPP MEP Prof. Svetoslav Malinov, political scientist and university lecturer.

The biggest problem the new Commission will face will be the war in Ukraine. A lot of compromises will be made in leading policies of the last decades, Malinov noted.

ECONOMY

Reliefs are introduced for companies with an annual turnover of up to BGN 20 million, Trud reports. Small companies will be considered those that do not exceed at least two of the following criteria - book value of assets of BGN 10 million, sales revenue of BGN 20 million and a staff of 50 people. This is according to amendments to the Accountancy Act, which have been released by the Ministry of Finance for public discussion.

The changes in the law will raise the criteria for micro, small, medium and large enterprises. Currently, small companies are those that do not exceed two of the following criteria - assets of BGN 8 million, sales revenue of BGN 16 million, and 50 employees.

Micro-enterprises will be considered to be those that do not exceed at least two of the following indicators - value of assets of BGN 900 thousand, sales revenues of BGN 1.8 million, and a staff of 10. Medium-sized companies will be considered those which do not exceed at least two of the following indicators - asset value of BGN 50 million, sales revenue of BGN 100 million and a staff of 250. Companies that exceed at least two of these criteria will be considered large.

Changes to the Accounting Act for large companies and companies whose shares are traded on the stock exchange will also require them to prepare an annual sustainability report. This report must set out the company's plans and actions to implement them, so as to ensure that its business model and strategy are compatible with the drive to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and what the company plans to do to reduce emissions.

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Fears of shortening the summer season and a tendentious attitude of the concessionaire of Burgas Airport cloud the expectations for the new summer season on the Southern Black Sea coast, according to BNR. Hoteliers and local authorities express suspicions of artificial diversion of passengers to Varna Airport. Discontent is also growing over the closure of Burgas Airport for renovation until the end of March.

This will be the final nail in the season’s coffin, says hotelier Veselin Nalbantov from Sunny Beach, who is also deputy chairman of the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association.

"Here the season is getting shorter and shorter because there are no flights. There are none in summer and none in winter. There are only charters. We used to start in April and end at the end of October. Now we open June, at the end of August there is no one to fly," explains Nalbantov. In his words, there should be predictability in tourism.

"You cannot land in Varna on your way to Burgas," he is adamant.

The concessionaire's announced intention to close the airport for six months in 2025 for runway repairs and full rehabilitation is causing a wave of discontent.

Mayor of Pomorie Ivan Alexiev is of the opinion that there is a "sugar-coated presentation dressed in pink and nothing in return" from the concessionaire.

The mayors of South-Eastern Bulgaria came up with a common position on the case. They want a review of the concession contract.

The collapse in three years is from 3,600,000 passengers to 1,800,000 in 2023, notes Ivan Alexiev.

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24 Chasa reports that the price of hotel accommodation in Bulgaria is expected to increase by an average of 10%. "Somewhere it may be higher, but that will be isolated cases," says Burgas Regional Tourist Chamber Chair Delyana Tsoneva. According to her, the rise in prices comes mainly from the minimum wage increase and not so much from inflationary pressure, which was the reason for last year's 20% growth in accommodation prices. They daily notes that according to the hoteliers the industry cannot afford a drastic increase as it will lead to a loss of tourists. When there is a shortage of staff and a lack of people willing to work, wages for certain positions rise, the newspaper says. Maids' pay has doubled in two years - if in 2022 a small hotel hired a maid for BGN 900 a month including free food, sleep and transport, now it offers a salary of BGN 1,500.

CRIME

Two Sofia police officers have been suspended from duty over suspicions that three years ago they were guarding Club SS, owned by the assassinated Martin Bojanov, aka The Notary, bTV has learned.

Hours after the Interior Minister appointed a probe into the case, it was found that the suspended policemen were in executive positions. According to the information received, both were sergeants until now.

Regarding the private Club SS, linked to the ostentatiously shot Bojanov, the Interior Minister has ordered a probe over photographs circulated in the media by the Anti-Corruption Fund of men alleged to be police officers providing personal security services.

The probe continues.

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Police detained Ilko Zahariev in Sofia, Nova TV reports. He became known by the nickname The Red Pirate. Authorities say the man sent threatening emails to magistrates, mayors, and public figures. In the capital, Zahariev led a vagabond lifestyle. He was found to have made bomb threats against schools, shopping malls, and the Customs Agency. The Red Pirate is a native of Sliven. His neighbours, whom he had also threatened, said he had been diagnosed with a split personality.

The Sofia District Prosecutor's Office has already indicted Zahariev. He will answer for threat of murder. His mental health is to be examined. On Sunday, the Sofia District Court is expected to decide whether to keep him in custody.

Zahariev has used at least 15 e-mail addresses to send threats to Judge Vladislava Tsarigradska, Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel, Ministers Kalin Stoyanov and Todor Tagarev, the head of the NRA, and the director of the Sofia Police Directorate. Zahariev has confessed that he personally wrote the threats.