site.btaMedia Review: July 10

POLITICS

Trud writes that one of the two chairs of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Dzhevdet Chakarov has set conditions for the other Chair, Delyan Peevski, to allow the party to function normally. Chakarov and MPs who signed as "supporting [MRF's Honorary Chair] Ahmed Dogan" did not attend the parliamentary group's meeting, which was to decide on what action it would take with the second government-forming mandate. According to them, "the instructions of the honorary chair, Ahmed Dogan, stating that, according to the situation, the MRF should have clear co-chairs - both for the party and for the parliamentary group" were not followed. This means co-chair participation in the negotiation process and that all decisions should be signed by the two co-chairs, the daily adds. After the meeting of the parliamentary group, Peevski commented to the media that a decision had been made for the second mandate and it was to invite all parties except Vazrazhdane to negotiations. "I have been elected Chair of the party by its national conference and parliamentary group. Everything else is a matter of media speculation. There is a parliamentary group that takes its decisions. It has decided that I should be the Chair at this time," he said, quoted by the newspaper.

On Nova Television's morning show, former MRF MP Hasan Ademov commented on the tensions in the party and what they could lead to. "The last national conference elected two co-chairs who have completely different profiles. This discrepancy is at the root of the tension," he argued. Ademov added that the voter wants to hear that the MRF is in "top shape and is led by collective bodies without individual decisions." "These 17 colleagues believe that the current leadership was elected contrary to the Constitution. According to them, the parliamentary group has no legitimacy to decide to take the mandate," he said.

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24 Chasa devotes three pages to a story comparing MRF Honorary Chair Dogan to former Bulgarian communist leader Todor Zhivkov. In an interview with the daily, historian Prof. Iskra Baeva says that they are similar as two of the Bulgarian political leaders that remained the longest on the political scene. "Ahmed Dogan is a figure who, like Zhivkov, has had a political career underground, has been arrested, was in prison. Tato [one of Zhivkov's nicknames] also had such a struggle but did not fall behind bars. But it is important to say that both are cunning. Note that their educational backgrounds are very different - Zhivkov has a high school education, while Dogan has a PhD in philosophy - which means that it is not a matter of education, but the skills of a political animal. That is not an insult. Both one and the other, and [GERB leader] Boyko Borissov, are just like that," Baeva said. She pointed out that Dogan's main move in his political career was to maintain the fear of the Bulgarian Turks that the Process of Rebirth [when Bulgara's Turks were be assimilated by changing their Turkish and Arabic names to Bulgarian and Slavic ones] could be repeated. Doing so expanded his influence, the historian explained. "In the transition years, this minority left the country for economic reasons, but Ahmed Dogan managed to expand into other areas so as not to lose voters - Roma, Muslims. And accordingly, to avoid the party being ethnic, he always cleverly managed to attract Bulgarians into its leadership which brings supporters among the rest of the population," Baeva said.  She compared the rift in the MRF with the coup attempt by the partisan Ivan Todorov against Zhivkov in 1965, as in both cases the actions were secret, and it was not understood for a long time that there was a problem. "Of course, in the MRF we cannot talk about a coup so far, but rather about a misunderstanding. I cannot judge what will happen now because there is a clash of the invisible power of Dogan with the visible power of Peevski. These problems exist in the other parties as well, but in the MRF they have not been encountered so far," Baeva said.

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The Bulgarian National Radio said that it has learned from its sources that Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) does not yet have a unified position on whether it will propose a cabinet if it receives the third government-forming mandate. On Wednesday, the coalition leaders will meet for further discussion. Two of the formations - Democrats for Strong Bulgaria and Yes, Bulgaria, (the two parties form the Democratic Bulgaria coalition) are proposing formulas for a technical and a programmatic government respectively. However, Continue the Change believes that there are no conditions in the 50th National Assembly to form a stable anti-corruption government, BNR said.

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Trud dedicates two pages to an interview with GERB Deputy Floor Leader Denitsa Sacheva.  "The chance of a cabinet in this Parliament is non-existent," she said.

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Telegraph features an interview with political scientist Tatyana Burudzhieva. She said that "the arithmetic does not work out for the second and third [government-forming] mandates. "The big problem with mandates is that majorities are formed for opposition, not for governance," Burudzhieva added. She recalled that the Bulgarian Socialist Party decided not to support anyone with the second mandate, and Vazrazhdane were also adamant in their position. "How to come up with the calculation without GERB, which also refused the realization for the next two mandates," the political scientist asked. She argued that the political leaders blocked any possibility to form a government with their positions during the election campaign. Burudzhieva said there was no chance of a cabinet and new elections were due.

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On Nova Television’s morning show, political scientist Georgi Kiryakov said, that the country finds itself in a situation where there is no party or coalition, with few exceptions, where there are no conflicts. This would lead to an overall lack of parties standing for election, he argued.

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Mediapool.bg writes that Vazrazhdane supported the attack of Nikolay Markov, floor leader of defunct Velichie parliamentary group, against Velichie's informal leader Ivelin Mihaylov. On Wednesday, Vazrazhdane said that it will submit a request for the establishment of an ad hoc parliamentary committee to investigate whether there is money laundering around Mikhailov's Historical Park project. Thus, Kostadin Kostadinov's party supported the initiative launched on Tuesday by three former Velichie MPs Darin Georgiev, Viktoria Vassileva and Georgi Kukov. In their motives, the former Velichie MPs wrote that the suspicions surrounding the activities of the Historical Park arose from inspections initiated by the National Revenue Agency. They also recalled numerous media reports regarding the operation of the complex, which apparently did not trouble them before the elections, the media outlet notes. The MPs insist on checking whether there is fraud, influence peddling and potential links with persons connected to local or central government officials. The three also want the committee to investigate "the possible existence of evidence of inaction by the prosecution service, the Interior Ministry and other competent authorities", as well as whether the activities of the Historical Park complex were carried out under someone’s protection.

ECONOMY

On bTV’s morning show, former energy minister Alexander Nikolov described as “good news” the fact that the public natural gas supplier Bulgargaz started arbitration proceedings against Russia’s Gazprom Export before the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. The claim filed is for damages of over EUR 400 million suffered as a result of the unilateral suspension of natural gas supplies more than two years ago, at the end of April 2022. "The amount should be greater," Nikolov stressed. "The devil is always in the details. The problem was not in the currency - whether it would be rubles, dollars or something else, but in the non-partner position in which Bulgaria was then placed," he explained. He also insisted that all the events that have taken place since April 26, 2022 should be revisited to clarify what has been done by each and every energy minister so far. "We need to trace who has said what and in whose interest they have spoken," Nikolov asserted.

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Trud's lead story covers rising bread prices. According to the National Statistical Institute, quoted by the daily, bread has risen by nearly 10% in the past two years, even though wheat has fallen by 45.5%. The article also features an interview with National Branch Union of Bakers and Confectioners (NBUBC) Chair Mariana Kukusheva. She says that the bread mark-up measure did not work as it was not coordinated with the business community. The NBUBC Chair is referring to the provision in the Value Added Tax Act (VATA), which states that in the tax document issued by the manufacturer or importer, the tax base can be increased by a maximum mark-up of up to 15% in the chain to the final consumer. "Anyway, bread is sold at around and below 15% mark-up, which defeats the measure," Kukusheva pointed out. "For it to come into force, it had to be specified who the controlling authority is, what is the methodology of checks, what are the penalties for violation of this measure, the Accounting Act had to be amended. In view of these shortcomings, Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkoca commented that the measure has an administrative impossibility to be implemented," she added. The daily also quotes an analysis by the Finance Ministry, which notes the need to introduce a definition of the term "mark-up" in the VATA.

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Telegraph's lead story covers property and farmland prices, citing its reference to data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI). "A 60-acre field in Dobrudzha (Northeast Bulgaria) is worth as much as a 47-square-metre panel flat in an outer capital borough," the daily writes. It also points out that garage prices in Sofia are reaching record levels because of the difficulty of finding parking spaces in the city. The media outlet gives the example of a man who sold a studio apartment on the Black Sea coast (in Ravda, Southeast Bulgaria) for EUR 30,000 to buy a parking space for EUR 25,000 in the capital. The article also notes an average 12.6% increase in prices for field deals across the country (excluding Southcentral Bulgaria, where NSI marked a 4.1% rise) compared to last year.

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Trud reports that the cost of government debt has risen, citing data from the Finance Ministry. Investors are demanding higher returns to finance the budget deficit, the daily notes.

JUDICIARY

Most media outlets cover the story regarding Constitutional Court’s ruling regarding Desislava Atanasova’s and Borislav Belazelkov’s election as constitutional judges from the parliamentary quota. 24 Chasa, Trud, Telegraph and Duma wrote that the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the decision of Parliament to elect them, but only in the part about the length of their terms in office. At the time, deputies wrote in their decision that the newly elected would have a full nine-year term, despite being voted in more than a year late.

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On Bulgarian National Television's morning show, CC-DB member former justice minister Atanas Slavov said that there were reports of an attempt by one of MRF’s two chairs Delyan Peevski to influence constitutional judges to overturn the constitutional amendments. "The point is that an attempt is being made to go backwards and as if this 1 year has not happened and these constitutional amendments have not been made. The changes to the Constitution were an important step - they set a new framework to have an independent court and an accountable prosecution service, but they need to be implemented with thought in two stages - the passing of the Judiciary Act and the election of new members to the two councils, new leadership of the prosecution service and the election of the president of the Supreme Administrative Court," he added.