site.btaMedia Review: June 13

HEADLINES 

The main topics on the frontpages of Bulgarian print media on Thursday are the aftermath of the June 9 snap parliamentary elections and the possibilities for government formation, and topics concerning the country’s economy. 

Telegraph’s leading analysis is on sustenance costs of a family in Bulgaria. Trud highlights that the price of water in Sofia will go up and in another frontpage headline says that Sofia Mayor has presented a project for the allocation of BGN 1 billion for Sofia’s public transport. The leading headline on the frontpage of Duma reads that „consolidation on the left is needed”. 24 Chasa’s Thursday issue has two front pages, the one on the top is entirely dedicated to the Black Sea town of Nessebar with a scenic picture and words by the town’s mayor. The inner front page leads with politics – the political career of GERB leader Boyko Borissov and his party’s government prospects as first parliamentary power. 

The main topics on the morning programmes of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), bTV, and Nova TV were once again studio discussions of the political scene in Bulgaria, a heavy hailstorm on Wednesday evening across the country, which destroyed agricultural land and produce, and a case of two National Security Service men hurt in an accident during a training. 

The Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) had political scientists and officials comment on election results. Podkrepa Confederation of Labour President Dimitar Manolov discusses the effect of the political situation on the labour markets of Bulgaria and Europe as a whole. 

ECONOMY 

Telegraph writes on its front page that food for a month for a family with one child costs about BGN 1,500, according to a survey with households conducted by the daily. The article includes an interview with Violeta Ivanova of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), who says that prices skyrocket from an already high initial basis. The sub headline reads that most money are paid for white brined cheese, pork meat and bread.  

POLITICS 

In an interview for Telegraph, Sociologist Kancho Stoychev says that GERB leader Boyko Borissov and Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) leader Delyan Peevski can bring about “actual change”.  He points out that Continue the Change have lost 300,000 votes, the real loss is of another year time. 

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Podkrepa Confederation of Labour President Dimitar Manolov told BNR that “participation in elections is a decent business”. “Bizarre formations will receive state support in the period until the next elections," Manolov said. He noted that it is time to consider raising the threshold for entry into the National Assembly. 

According to him, Continue the Change party is a “political project and political projects come and go”. He stressed that systemic parties are the problem and people’s distrust towards them. 

"There is a misconception that the European Parliament is a super important institution. It isn't. The initiatives for everything that happens are not the European Parliament's. We should not overestimate its importance. What is more important is what the composition of the European Commission will be, what the European Council will look like," he pointed out.

Manolov said that talks about a budget with a caretaker government are not the most optimistic at the moment. In his words, the issue of the minimum wage is "closed" in trade unions’ relations with employers. In some sectors, the situation is dramatic, according to Manolov.

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Former chairman of the BSP, former MP in five Parliaments and former speaker of the National Assembly, as well as former interior minister, Mihail Mihov told BNR that lack of left oriented policies and socialists’ political compromises in recent years have made people distrust left politics.

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24 Chasa has an overview of GERB leader Boyko Borissov’s political career and his early life on occasion of his birthday, June 13. The full page begins with his latest achievement in the June 9 elections and goes all the way back to the start of his political career in 2005 and his birth year 1959.In 2005 he became mayor of Sofia after gaining popularity as a Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry since 2001. 

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Lyubomir Kyuchukov - former deputy foreign minister and director of the Institute for Economics and International Relations, told BNR that the new configuration in the European Parliament and in the separate member states – “the right-wing wave that is flooding Europe” - will make Bulgaria's full membership in Schengen significantly more difficult. According to him, positive developments for Bulgaria and Romania can hardly be expected any time soon.

HOME AFFAIRS 

A heavy hailstorm hit Bulgaria overnight on Wednesday. Agricultural land, vehicles, and buildings were damaged by hail the size of an egg, according to citizens photos and videos broadcast on the morning programmes of BNT, bTV, and Nova TV. 

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Two National Security Service officers were injured in training shootings on Friday, June 7. The training was carried out with machine guns and semi-automatic pistols. The projectile hit the metal, shattered and ricocheted. Fragments from the bullet casings wounded the guards. One was hit in the leg and the other in the neck. Former NSS officer and shooting instructor Velizar Marinov, told bTV that such incidents are not uncommon, but they do not happen often either. Recent training of the same type had no problems and was carried out according to the rules. The case was commented on in all television morning programmes.