site.btaMedia Review: July 22

POLITICS

Monday’s media report that President Rumen Radev handed over the second exploratory cabinet-forming mandate to the second largest parliamentary group in Parliament, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). On behalf of the coalition, Nikolay Denkov immediately returned the unfulfilled mandate because there was no anti-corruption majority in this National Assembly.

CC-DB became the second largest group in the National Assembly after 17 MPs were expelled from the MRF group and several subsequently left on their own. Thus, MRF’s parliamentary group has dwindled to 22 people and they are now fourth after Vazrazhdane, while CC-DB has 39 MPs.

CC-DB already said that they will return an empty folder and an unfulfilled mandate to the President.

The reason is that they didn’t find support from the parties to adopt a declaration to pass anti-corruption laws and complete justice reform, and to delay the mandate by about two months to give MPs time to adopt them.

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Lecturer in constitutional law Prof. Plamen Kirov appeared on the morning show of Nova TV. According to him, the next elections will be at the beginning of October and until then Dimitar Glavchev will remain caretaker Prime Minister.

"We are going to elections because the second mandate will be returned today and the third mandate cannot be fulfilled with the first and second parties not talking to each other. There is no parliamentary dialogue to consolidate a majority around the third mandate. We have a two-month election process. As of today, the President has seven days to decide who to hand the third mandate to. After that, the parliamentary group he chooses does not have a deadline to try to form a government. It can delay the process," he said.

Prof. Kirov expects things within the Movement for Rights and Freedoms to calm down in view of the potential snap elections in the autumn.

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Caretaker Minister of Innovation and Growth Rosen Karadimov spoke on the morning show of bTV. "The Bulgarian political elite in recent years is used to making not quite independent decisions and is a function of other types of decisions. With the exception of a few parties, it has tried to bring a neoliberal consensus into Bulgarian society, where there is a moderately conservative consensus. When political formations or alliances are created that can consolidate the moderately conservative consensus of the Bulgarian people and their view of the world, Bulgaria will have stable governments," he said.

ECONOMY

24 Chasa runs an interview with caretaker Minister of Economy Petko Nikolov. According to him, the introduction of the euro will be proof of the deepening of Bulgaria’s European integration. One of the benefits will be the increase of the country's credit rating. The single currency will reduce transaction costs for businesses, and have a positive effect on foreign investment.

In times of crisis, a strong European monetary policy has the tools to contain inflation in euro area countries and keep it low. At the same time, the ECB supervises the banking system and thus ensures its sustainability.

The caretaker government continued intensive work on the country's practical preparations for euro area membership. It also approved the draft law on the introduction of the euro at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, Nikolov said.

Asked about the measures taken to protect consumers in the euro changeover, he said that they include requirements for proper recalculation of prices from levs to euros, and the indication of prices of goods and services in both currencies, adding that the Commission for Consumer Protection has an important role to play and will oblige traders to correctly recalculate and double mark prices.

According to the Economy Minister, meeting the inflation criterion remains a challenge for Bulgaria that needs work. The latest data from the National Statistical Institute shows deflation for the third consecutive month. The monthly inflation rate for June is -0.2% and the annual inflation was 2.5%. So, the ministry expects to meet this criterion by the end of the year.

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bTV covers a monitoring by the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) of the prices of 20 basic commodities - 19 food and gasoline - in seven EU member states. The data shows that one basket of these basic goods in Bulgaria can be bought for BGN 110.50 (EUR 56.52). In Germany, the same basket of food costs EUR 64.86. The minimum wage in Germany, however, is EUR 2,054, which is EUR 1,500 higher than the minimum wage in Bulgaria. Thus, it turns out that with the minimum wage in Bulgaria of BGN 933 (EUR 477) only 8.4 baskets of basic food can be bought, while in Germany the minimum wage can buy 31.7 baskets, or almost four times more.

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"The average net income of a European is EUR 28,000 a year. In Bulgaria, however, it is EUR 9,325, which is three times less. We are not talking about Luxembourg or Switzerland - the figures there are very large, but the scary thing is that this gap is increasing. We are going down, not up," economist Mika Zaykova said on bTV's morning show.

The prices of basic goods and products in this country are approaching the prices of the same goods in EU countries, but wages remain different. This is because prices are not formed on the basis of demand and supply, but are formed on the basis of cartel agreements - not the grey economy, but the criminal one plays a big role. Bulgaria’s agriculture is constantly declining, but we are not sustaining it either - that is why 80% of what we eat is imported," she explained.

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"The big differences between prices in this country and the rest of Europe come out when we look at other commodities. The prices of services in Bulgaria are 45% of the European average - that is, they are much cheaper than food because they cannot be traded," economist Stoyan Panchev explained.

In his words, raising the minimum wage in Bulgaria can be done with a decision in the National Assembly, but to increase real economic incomes, he pointed to two main factors: Bulgaria’s pace of economic growth, and the pace of other EU member states.

"To reach the average European level we will need time until about the mid-2040’s," Panchev predicted.

THE FIRES

The national television and other media report that the situation with the fire burning in Greece near the border remains critical at a mere 600 meters from Bulgarian, where forests and bushes are burning. For three days, forestry officials, volunteers and fire brigades have been clearing the area to prevent the flames from crossing the border.

Early this morning, foresters and firefighters again began cutting clearings to prevent the fire from entering the Slavyanka Mountain, where the Ali Botush reserve is located. According to the head of the local forestry agency, for the moment there is no danger for the settlements.

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The fight against the fire near the border villages of Bolyarovo Municipality continues for the seventh day. Due to high temperatures and strong winds, a new fire has broken out near the village of Golyam Dervent, which has covered an area of 73,000 hectares, Governor of Yambol Nikolay Kostadinov said.

He noted that currently the temperatures are not high, there is no wind, there is no danger for the settlements, but the situation remains dynamic.

On Sunday, the first seven vans arrived in the most affected village, Voden, for the people whose homes were burnt down. Eight more are expected. An additional mobile cell has also been installed to ensure communication in the affected area, Kostadinov added.

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Nova TV reports that Turkiye has sent assistance to Bulgaria to fight the fires. It consists of 32 firefighters and three trucks, one fire truck, and other equipment. One helicopter has also been dispatched and work is underway to secure more machinery. President Erdogan wrote on the social network X to his Bulgarian counterpart, assuring that Turkiye will continue to stand in solidarity with its friends in difficult times.

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Nova TV invited to its studio Ventsislav Stankov from the Firefighters' Union, who said there are problems with ensuring the safe working conditions of the Fire Department employees.

"There is a problem with protective clothing. The last restock was in 2012-2013. There were two public orders for 2,400 garments for fighting forest fires. Their serviceability is five years. Then there was a procurement that was not awarded. My colleagues are wearing whatever they have," Stankov said.

According to him, there have been developed new samples of clothing for firefighters for five years. But the Interior Ministry has not yet been able to announce a public tender to buy test models for officers to try out and say whether they work for them.

Currently firefighters prefer to work in T-shirts because their bodies overheat. But that's very dangerous, Stankov noted. "I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. It's a violation of safe working conditions," he said.

Since the performance guarantee of the garments has expired, they must go through laboratory testing. If they are fit, a certificate should be issued. If the lab says they are not fit, they must be replaced with new ones, Stankov explained, adding that the cost of a nice new protective outfit for a firefighter is between BGN 700 and 900.

"About 5,000 garments have to be bought now. To replace them regularly, a minimum of 1,100-1,200 would have to be bought annually. This is just for forest fires. It is the same with clothing for indoor fires," Stankov said.

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Minister of Defence Atanas Zapryanov told bTV that the State should consider creating a military air unit to be responsible for the fires in the country. He compared this type of assistance to that provided by medical helicopters. He said this idea is yet to be discussed and its implementation takes time.