site.btaMedia Review: March 29

Caretaker Government and Early Elections

President Rumen Radev's meetings with candidates for caretaker prime minister position and the forthcoming early parliamentary elections dominate the media on Friday. 

Trud features an article covering President Rumen Radev’s rights when it comes to caretaker governments. The daily quotes constitutional lawyers without mentioning their names. According to them Radev has the right to replace the caretaker prime minister with another at any moment he sees fit, simply by issuing a new decree. The newspaper also writes that National Audit Office Deputy Chairs Goritsa Grancharova – Kozharova and Toshko Todorov are expected to turn down a potential offer for the position of a caretaker Prime Minister as they both have the right to a second term in office, which they have to give up by accepting to join a caretaker government. The National Audit Office Act explicitly states that the Chair, Deputy Chairs and members of the National Audit Office must not have served in the executive for the last three years. 

In an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio, former deputy finance minister Georgi Kadiev argued that the most likely choices for a caretaker prime minister are the two National Audit Office Deputy Chairs. If these two people quit, we will be in a constitutional crisis, he noted. Half of the options, who can now be appointed caretaker prime minister by the President, are prominent political figures, which brings risk, Kadiev stressed. 

On Nova Television’s morning show, Institute for Public Environment Development expert Lilian Nikiforova said that a potential two-in-one election, meaning simultaneous European and parliamentary elections, will save on transport costs for the voting machines. Central Election Commission's Public Council Chair Tsvetelina Peneva added that if the distance between the two types of elections is one week, it would hamper the transport and logistics of voting machines. "Let me remind you that we have to vote by machine in polling stations with more than 300 voters, which means that the machines have to be transported to polling stations not only in the country but also abroad. Once the European elections are held, they have to be brought back to Bulgaria to be reprogrammed with the new software for national elections, and then returned to the polling stations abroad. It is almost impossible to do this in a week. We will most likely not be able to organize machine voting there," Peneva explained.

24 Chasa reports that for a short period of time in June Bulgaria will pay salaries to 480 MPs instead of 240. The 49th National Assembly will be disbanded when the MPs from the next one are sworn in -  this usually takes place about 10 days after election day. "There is an overlap period, which from a budgetary point of view means that for a couple of weeks we will be paying the salaries of not 240 but 480 MPs," the daily quotes constitutional lawyer Borislav Tsekov as saying. The reason is that the salaries of the new MPs are calculated from the date of the elections. For those who will remain MPs in the next Parliament, the salary will be doubled for the said period.

Capital weekly features an article on the reasons behind the failure of the Cabinet rotation. The article notes that the ruling majority of GERB and CC-DB, supported by MRF, broke up at a key moment when reforms in the judiciary were to gain real dimensions through the new Judiciary Act. Along with this, rules had to be agreed on the filling of key regulatory and supervisory bodies with expired mandates. Going to early elections will preserve the status quo in a number of key regulators such as the Commission for the Protection of Competition, the Financial Supervision Commission and the State Agency of Energy Regulation, through which GERB and DPS have control over the entire economy, the financial and energy sectors, Capital notes. The early vote will also postpone the adoption of the Judiciary Act, after which new members of the two highest judicial councils were to be elected from the parliamentary quota. The Supreme Judicial Council is now governed by members nominated mainly by GERB and MRF, through which the two parties exercise influence over personnel decisions in the judiciary, including the election of the Prosecutor General.

On bTV’s morning show, Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) MP Yavor Bozhankov said that the motive for GERB's actions, which lead to new early elections, is for the judicial reform not to be completed. "The bad news is that we cannot force them to finish this reform because they are the first political force. The good news is that they also cannot elect their judiciary for the next five years because we are more than 1/3 and the Constitution requires a 2/3 majority," Bojankov said. He also commented on the future caretaker government: "The President has a choice of several people [for the position of caretaker prime minister], it is not true that they are all GERB’s party figures. There is another choice, I think Andrei Gyurov is not such a person. The President still has a choice. One person miraculously resigned. This is strange to say the least and the person should explain why. There was an option that was politically neutral and the person withdrew. It seems as if there is some pressure," Bozhankov said.

Politics

24 Chasa has a story dedicated to Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) leader Ahmed Dogan’s 70th birthday and his impact in Bulgarian politics over the years. "He was the politician who participated in all the processes of political transition in Bulgaria and is still set their direction", the daily writes. The newspaper adds that even though Dogan no longer makes public appearances, he managed to achieve the unthinkable - to erase the demonization of his party and its Co-Floor Leader Delyan Peevski, whom he supported after in 2021 Peevski was designated by the US under the Global Magnitsky Act as an oligarch who "has regularly engaged in corruption, using influence peddling and bribes to protect himself from public scrutiny and exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society.". [The MP is challenging the designation in a US court. His lawyers argue that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by their client.]

Defence

On Bulgarian National Television’s morning show, outgoing Defence Minister Todor Tagarev said that it is important who will be the next defence minister, but it is also important to continue the course of rapid development of the country's defence capabilities. He added that he had not had any talks to be defence minister in a next regular cabinet. “I am not a member of a political party and I was not involved in the negotiations. I have full confidence in Nikolay Denkov, who said that my name was not mentioned in the process of the negotiations,” said Tagarev. He clarified that he had no plans to create a political project of his own. Commenting on a statement that Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Atanas Atanasov is being investigated by the Defence Intelligence Service, Tagarev pointed out that the issue is very sensitive. "There is a certain case, but there is no investigation of politicians by the Military Intelligence Service," Tagarev said, adding that this cannot happen because the Service has no such legal powers. 

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Telegraph reports that there is low interest in army jobs, citing the Defence Ministry. Currently there are over 5,500 vacancies in the army. The results of the competitions held in 2023 did not show a positive trend in the number of applicants for military service, and the ratio of applicants to positions is 1.05. Defence Ministry data show that 1,595 vacancies were advertised last year for soldiers, 36 for sergeants and 16 for officers graduating in civilian subjects such as finance and law. Only 729 soldiers and five officers were recruited. 

Economy

Capital weekly’s top story is dedicated to Bulgaria’s Schengen accession on aid and sea borders, which will come into force next week. Over 1.3 million Bulgarians a year travel by air to Schengen, but almost 2 million enter Greece by land alone, and almost all cargo crosses land borders, the article states. The country loses BGN 1.2 billion a year by failing to gain full Schengen accession, according to a report by the Economy Ministry, and this affects Bulgarian producers, traders and therefore the economy. No one can say when Bulgaria will enter Schengen by land. "Discussions are ongoing", a spokesman for the European Commission told Capital. The political instability in Bulgaria and the likely lack of a regular cabinet, as well as the upcoming parliamentary elections in Austria (most likely in September), where support for far-right and anti-immigrant politicians is rising, are likely to doom this process at least for 2024.

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Capital weekly features an explainer on Bulgaria’s transition from BGN to EUR. The two currencies will only be used in parallel for a month, while the dual pricing will be for a period of almost a year and a half. Banknotes and coins will be exchangeable free of charge in banks and post offices for up to six months after the introduction of the single currency. Bulgaria has not yet been given an exact date for joining the euro area, but hopes are that this will happen in 2025, if the country does not enter a new political crisis by then. Brussels has already signalled this is unlikely to happen from January 1 next year, rather from mid-2025. But in a scenario of new political instability or a cabinet and a finance minister who do not have the euro in focus, there is a risk of a new postponement, Capital points out.