site.btaMedia Review: July 5

HEADINGS 

Not a single topic dominated the front pages of print media on Friday. The main story on the front page of Trud is about nationwide pharmacists’ protests over controversial changes, made by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and concern payments to pharmacies for the handling of fully reimbursable prescriptions. Telegraph’s top story is about checks by the Interior Ministry’s Traffic Police, which have fined some 30,000 for not wearing a seatbelt while driving or travelling by car. Duma leads with a story about Bulgaria’s primary and secondary education system, that “education here is in a pit”. The leading headline on the front page of 24 Chasa reads that tourists are getting lost in Greece because of the hot weather, “the heat blurs the brain”, the title says.

The morning programmes of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), bTV, and Nova TV hosted discussions on political topics and cultural events. Guests were political scientists, leaders and economists. 

The top story of Capital weekly is on the apparent rift in the ranks of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) after the proposed Cabinet of GERB-UDF’s Rosen Zhelyazkov was rejected in Parliament. MRF MPs were split: 30 voted in favour (as expected), 14 voted against and one abstained. 

Mediapool.bg has an article on railway transport in Bulgaria and in Europe as a whole. 

POLITICS 

Bulgaria's Parliament Wednesday denied approval to Prime Minister-designate Rosen Zhelyazkov, thus practically terminating the constitutional procedure for the formation of a cabinet on the first mandate. The vote was 138 against, 98 in favour, and 2 abstentions. All 68 GERB-UDF MPs backed the PM designate. The vote of the 45 MPs of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) was split: 30 in favour, 14 against and one abstention. All 39 MPs of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) voted against, as did all 38 MPs of Vazrazhdane, all 18 MPs of BSP for Bulgaria, all 16 MPs of There Is Such a People (TISP), all 13 MPs of Velichie, and 2 of the 3 independents.

The frontpage of the weekly issue of capital features a photo of a smartphone receiving a call from MRF Honorary Chairman Ahmed Dogan (illustrated with a photo), whose number is saved as “the boss”. The title reads “On course to another snap elections: What happened?”. Capital writes that the most likely scenario for Bulgaria after the proposed by GERB minority Cabinet did not pass the first vote of the procedure in Parliament is yet another snap parliamentary elections – the seventh in a row.  

The story goes that at the last elections in June, voters (mainly those who did not vote) removed the fig leaf of the governing assembly, revealing the true landscape at the top of the state, which can be most succinctly described as a hostage crisis. In this crisis, Boyko Borissov and his party GERB are trying to get out of the hoop tightened by Delyan Peevski, who came out of the shadows as the new leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and demanded a government at any cost. Curiously, they were helped by none other than MRF's honorary chairman Ahmed Dogan. And the turmoil that the recent co-chairman has caused in the monolithic party has called into question his ambition to officially become the most important factor in the state - based on his personal control over key parts of the judiciary and power structures. As far as the option for another government in the current Parliament seems only theoretical, President Rumen Radev will again pick a caretaker prime minister from the narrow circle of people in leading positions in several institutions. After the Anti-Corruption Commission sent BNB deputy governor Andrey Gyurov on forced leave, only officials linked to GERB and the MRF remained. In this sense, Glavchev's government can continue to do the bidding of its political bosses and organize new elections. 

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In an interview for 24 Chasa, GERB’s Delyan Dobrev, who was nominated for energy minister in Zhelyazkov’s Cabinet proposal, says that if a regular government is not formed until autumn, in spring Bulgaria will have a Parliament with a pro-Russian majority. According to him, a regular government is still possible with the third government-forming mandate even if it is highly unlikely. He shamed Continue the Change by saying that they only ridicule GERB-UDF for not being able to form a Cabinet and enjoy the crisis Bulgaria is in right now. 

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Velichie (Grandeur) party Floor Leader Nikolay Markov told the morning programme of bTV that he sees no reason to disassociate from Velichie, when he is both floor leader and leader of the parliamentary party. He commented on a call of the party’s governing body, the Central Council, for Markov and Viktoria Vassileva to resign as Floor Leader and Deputy Parliament Chair, respectively, published on the party’s website. In Markov's words, he was elected chairman of the formation and congratulated by Albena Pekova. "It is the duty of those who held the conference to submit the documents to the court. 

It turned out to be another fraud and they did not submit them. This is a document fraud," Nikolay Markov said in defence of holding the position of party leader. According to the party’s website the current party leader is Albena Pekova. 

"I can do without this party, Pekova is in heavy financial dependency on Mihailov [Ivelin Mihailov, ideologist of Velichie], they both behaved wrongly," Markov said. He announced that the rift in his relations with Ivelin Mihailov had occurred because he had asked Mihailov's business to be separated from the party affairs. It also followed after Mihailov had locked the formation's MPs in a barn in his home. 

A few days ago, Ivelin Mihailov, who is not an MP, said he had received a death threat from Markov. The apple of discord was Velichie's support for the GERB-UDF draft cabinet, bTV noted.

ECONOMY 

Economist Lyubomir Datsov told the morning studio of Nova TV that a caretaker government is better than a regular government because there is a difference in the liberties in governance. A regular government has to have a strategy and a vision, while a caretaker government solves day-to-day and small problems on the spot, he said. 

In his words, Bulgaria has a higher standard than Greece in some areas. "In 2021 Bulgaria has nearly 8% economic growth - the highest in recent years. Caretaker and regular governments have contributed to it - that of Borissov [GERB leader Boyko Borissov] and that of Stefan Yanev. When you leave business to sort itself out without the state intervening, it does better," Datsov said.

"The projects that were approved do not add value. Public procurements have been concentrated in big companies, the NRRP is also mainly meant for them. There is an economic bubble at the moment and the state is not cooling it down," he said.

HEALTHCARE 

Trud writes that “pharmacies are breaking ties with NHIF”. The sub headline reads that pharmacists forecast another increase of supplies. The article reads that new torments are coming for patients if the new regulation comes into force. Pharmacy owners are threatening to break ties with the NHIF because their work is being doubled and pay cut in half. Patients will not be able to get certain prescription medicines for free in pharmacies that do not work with the NHIF.  

In an interview for Trud, Konstantin Kachulev, a pharmacist from Petrich and chairman of the National Pharmacy Branch Organization, said that the changes are lobbyist and will lead to bankruptcies. "The new regulation is a Frankenstein because it disturbs the balance in the system and condemns small pharmacies to bankruptcy at the expense of large chains. In implementing the new changes, we have carried out an analysis which shows that 5% to 7% underfunding by the Health Insurance Fund will remain, which will force pharmacies to charge this money on the sale of supplements or other products that are already expensive and rarely purchased,” he said. This will hit patients, but it will also hit small pharmacies, which will not survive and eventually close down. According to Kachulev, it makes sense that in their place will appear either vending machines or outlets of the large pharmacy chains, which are representatives of the manufacturers.

TRANSPORT

Mediapool.bg has an article entitled “EU pours billions into providing cheap railway transport, but Europeans find it hard to get out of their cars”. The article reads that in a borderless world like the European Union, transport is important for travel, the European economy and global supply chains. The transport sector contributes around 5% to the EU's gross domestic product and employs over 10 million people. But transport emissions account for a quarter of EU greenhouse gas emissions, which is why transport is at the heart of the European Green Deal initiatives, which aim for cleaner, greener and smarter mobility. To promote the use of trains as a safe and sustainable form of transport for passengers and freight, 2021 has been declared European Year of Rail. But trends are hard to reverse, and the car remains the preferred mode of transport in the European Union. On average, there were 560 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in the EU in 2022, with the most in Italy (684) and the fewest in Bulgaria (428), Hungary (424), Romania (417) and Latvia (414), according to Eurostat, Mediapool.bg writes, citing Eurostat data. The article first discusses the situation in Bulgaria with a vox populi survey with Bulgarian train travellers. The surveyed share mainly negative impressions of Bulgarian railways transport but explain that they opt for travelling with a train because it cheaper than a bus ticket or they do not have a driving license or cannot afford to have a car. A woman said that she used to prefer railway transport because it was convenient and cheaper, but after once travelling in a very hot summer in a train, which did not have openable windows and no air conditioning, she stopped using the train to travel in the country. 

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The top story of Telegraph is on the results of Traffic Police inspections on the country’s road for the past half year. The article reads that 30,000 were fined for travelling without a seatbelt. The fine is BGN 50. Some 2,098,431 vehicles were checked between January 1 and June 30, 2024. A highlight in the story is that 70% of children who have died in car accidents were travelling in the backseat without a seatbelt. The story has many subtopics and takes up two pages in the newspaper. Another headline reads that 120 people die travelling in the back seat every year. The topic also features stories of relatives of deceased in car accidents, some reached justice in their legal battle for the punishment of careless drivers and some who have not and still fight.