site.btaMedia Review: August 5

HEADLINES

The headlines on the front pages of print media on Monday are on various topics. The dominating topic on the morning programmes of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), bTV, and Nova TV is political. Other main discussion topics are the wildfires spreading throughout Bulgaria, and the Olympic boxing match between Bulgarian boxer Svetlana Kamenova and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting.

The main headline on the front page of 24 Chasa is on Bulgaria’s political situation, the title reads “[President Rumen] Radev has seven days to swallow [current caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar] Glavchev for Prime Minister”. Monday, August 5, is the day when the third government-forming mandate holder There Is Such a People (TISP) will return the mandate to the President unfulfilled, thus, Bulgaria will have to hold yet another snap parliamentary elections in autumn and have yet another caretaker government until then. According to recent constitutional changes, the President has to appoint a caretaker Prime Minister having a limited pool of choice – the Parliament Chair, the central bank governor or vice governor, the National Audit Office head or their deputy, the National Ombudsman or their deputy.

The top headline on the front page of Telegraph reads that half of mobile phones in the country do not activate with a signal when in case of regional or national emergency situations. Trud’s front page headlines says that jarred foods can be poisonous. The main headline on the front page of Duma reads  “TISP returns the mandate today”.

The Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) had interviews with political analyst Atanas Radev and journalist Ruzha Raycheva.

POLITICS

Journalist Ruzha Raycheva told BNR that the Bulgarian people should not get irritated because they will have to go to the polls again. Raycheva called on Bulgarians to go vote and hope that the country finds stability. She stressed that the turnout should not fall. She and political analyst Atanas Radev are of the same opinion about the upcoming parliamentary elections that "it is necessary to vote" if Bulgaria wants to get out of the political crisis and have a regular government. According to them regarding the polarization in the MRF, Leader Delyan Peevski will try to take over the political formation. Atanas Radev commented on the political rift in the party by saying that there are patterns of certain values on the one hand, and on the other hand, a discourse about circles of influence. “This is the conflict we see in society and the conversation that has long been had about the ‘Who’ model. We're going to be seeing these kinds of confrontations for a long time,” Radev stressed. The “who” model he referred to regards the question to higher political figures seemingly unknown to the public, who take major political decisions in the country.

WILDFIRES

Duma writes on its front page that Bulgaria is second after Cyprus in the European Union in the number of wildfires in 2024 so far.

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BNT had a live report from the villages of Voden and Krainovo in the Yambol region, where dozens of burned houses and settlements continue to cope with the aftermath of the fires. Thirteen families have been rendered homeless and are housed in trailers. They report that conditions are poor as they only have beds. So far, the victims have only received a one-off aid of BGN 1,500. food is delivered to them once a day by the Bolyarovo municipality.

BOXING MATCH OF BULGARIAN KAMENOVA AND TAIWANESE YU-TING

Bulgarian female boxer Svetlana Kamenova lost to Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting in the quarter finals at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Sunday. The match result provoked a strong reaction from the Bulgarian Boxing Federation and from President Rumen Radev. Svetlana Kamenova lost to Taiwan's Lin Yu Tin in the quarterfinals. This provoked a strong reaction from the Boxing Federation as well as from Head of State Rumen Radev. The Taiwanese boxer is one of the two female boxers at the Olympics whose gender identity has been the subject of debate and international outcry, Nova TV writes.

Bulgarian boxer Tervel Pulev appeared on the morning programme of the national TV channel to comment on the situation. "I watched the match in isolation, excluding the fact that I sympathize with Svetlana. For me, she won by a slim margin," he said. According to him, the International Olympic Committee should take measures and prevent unfair interference. "Men cannot compete against women," Pulev said.

Duma has a photo from the match on its front page. The photograph shows how Lin Yu-ting hits Svetlana Kamenova with an elbow, which is not allowed in boxing, the caption reads.

A photograph of Kamenova is on the frontpage of 24 Chasa. The Bulgarian is photographed right after the end of the match with crossed index fingers above her head which symbolizes the X chromosome. She is quoted saying “I am a woman!”.

Sports commentator Georgi Petkov told the morning programme of BNT that Svetlana Kamenova is 34 years old that was the last Olympic competition for one of Bulgaria’s best female boxers. He criticized the match referees for assessing the boxers unjustly. "The sports-technical side of the match was even more pathetic than the fact that a man came out to fight Svetla," Petkov was adamant. Palmi Ranchev, boozing coach and former boxing competitor told BNT that the match was an even fight. “But Svetlana was very affected by the scandal around the fact that she will play against Lin Yu-ting. Svetlana was not fully concentrated - she did not play with her front hand, she was constantly trying to look for her opponent with a left cross", Ranchev noted.

Trud and Telegraph also has Svetlana Kamenova on their frontpage. Telegraph writes that the situation is a stalemate, while the headline in Trud says that the Olympic Games are no longer what they used to be.

AIRFORCE

A headline on the website of Mediapool reads "The drama in the air force continues: the bodyguard, the wrecked plane and the deputy ministers". The article reads that after caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev appointed the former head of the National Security Service and bodyguard of Boyko Borissov Gen. Todor Kodzheykov as head of the air squadron, fired Gen. Zlatko Zlatev said there was no real reason for his dismissal. The reshuffle led to tensions along the president-government axis after the head of state and former Air Force commander Rumen Radev defended Zlatev.

Zlatev appeared on the morning programme of bTV, where he said that according to him, the problem is rooted in a case from before two weeks, when there were flights with caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev and President Rumen Radev on the same day, but there was a problem with Glavchev's flight, which was fixed in about 15 minutes.

Zlatev said he would not appeal the dismissal, but he would not remain a pilot with the State Aviation Operator. The President had previously said that the rotation was formally explained by a case of the government's Falkon aircraft failing while the aircraft was on the ground. For his part, caretaker Transport Minister Georgi Gvozdeykov said that the reason for Zlatev's dismissal were systematic administrative violations. The last of these was that he left the country for 3-4 days without informing anyone.

ECONOMY

Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) Plamen Dimitrov discussed on the morning programme of Nova TV how the lack of a regular government affects Bulgarians’ income. "Food prices in Bulgaria are much higher than in other European countries - Poland, Romania. Milk and cheese in Bulgaria are the most expensive - more expensive than in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Croatia. These figures have no explanation," Dimitrov stressed. In his words, businesses in some regions of the country suppress the price of labour, thinking that this way they can find cheap labour. Among these regions are Blagoevgrad, Kardzhali, Haskovo and Smolyan, according to the president of the CITUB. According to Dimitrov, in these places there are between 7 and 10 large operators who have agreed to hire employees at low wages.

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Trud writes that health authorities warn that homemade canned products can turn deadly. Neither salt nor vinegar nor prolonged boiling or freezing neutralize the causative agents of botulism. It is food poisoning that can have fatal consequences, and the causative agent lies under the very lid of the sterilized jar, Trud writes, quoting the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. A list of the risks of preserving food in jars is published on the website of the Ministry.