site.btaMedia Review: September 2

POLITICS – MRF TENSIONS 

The tension between the Movement for Rights and Freedoms’ (MRF) two wings, which formed following the rift between the party’s Honorary Chairman Ahmed Dogan and one of its two chairmen, Delyan Peevski, is once again in the media spotlight. Representatives of the two factions were waiting in front of the Central Election Commission to register the party for the upcoming October 27 snap general elections.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) is blocked by representatives of the two factions in the MRF of Ahmed Dogan and Delyan Peevski and cannot start work, mediapool.bg wrote. The filing applications for registration of coalition parties for the early elections on 27 October was scheduled to begin Monday. Because of the situation, the Commission called an emergency meeting to decide how to proceed. The meeting will start at 10:30 and there will be no acceptance of documents before it ends. During the night Delyan Peevski announced that "MRF - New Beginning is already a fact". "At 00.05 hours on September 2, 2024, we submitted an electronically signed application for registration for the upcoming elections to the 51st National Assembly," Delyan Peevski announced in a letter to the media circulated in the middle of the night. "We are innovative and modern. We are together in the name of the people. We will always stand by the people and work for the people. The best is yet to come!" the letter states.

According to the CEC timeline, parties can submit registration documents every working day from September 2 to September 11 from 9:30 am to 5 pm. No online registration option is described.

"An act of desperation by a man who lost everything! I'm not talking about morality - he lost it long ago, if he ever had it!" wrote Ilhan Kyuchyuk on Facebook, who sided with Ahmed Dogan in the clash with Peevski. Over the weekend, representatives of both factions in the MRF began to stand guard outside the CEC, which shares a building with the National Assembly, to register first.

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Trud: CEC will not accept registration documents until at least 10.30 a.m on Monday, Trud wrote.

The CEC convened an emergency meeting at 10.30 to decide how to deal with the situation in which MRF-Dogan and the MRF faction gravitating around Delyan Peevski are arguing over which wing is allowed to submit documents first.

CEC Chairperson Kameliya Neykova and Vice Chairperson Rositsa Mateva are in Azerbaijan, having seconded themselves as election observers there. Members of the CEC told Trud that Neykova and Mateva are expected to return to Sofia Tuesday evening.

There is no explanation as to why the two most important figures in the CEC have gone to observe elections in Azerbaijan, since the tension over the registration of parties for Bulgaria's elections was expected, MPs said.

BULGARIAN SOCIALIST PARTY  

The turmoil in the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the expulsion of its former leader Korneliya Ninova is also covered by the media.

Mediapool: The former leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Korneliya Ninova, who resigned after the Socialists' failure in the previous elections, and was temporarily replaced by Atanas Zafirov, was expelled from the party on Sunday. This happened after two votes of the BSP National Council. In the first, the motion to expel her was supported by 102 votes, in the second - by 105.

This development came about after Ninova created intrigue with the party's running in the October 27 early elections, authorising two of her cronies to register the party as the incumbent Zafirov is not yet officially registered and so there is a legal collision.

Also excluded are Georgi Svilensky (103 votes in favour) and Ivan Chenchev (104 votes in favour), whom she had authorised to represent her before the CEC. Also expelled was Krum Donchev (105 votes in favour).

Duma quotes Zafirov as saying that the BSP National Council excluded Ninova, Svilenski, Chenchev and Donchev with a categorical majority, including a second voting. “So that it can be completely democratic, each proposal was voted separately,” he said.

"We confirmed in front of the National Council  the timetable on which we are moving towards the consolidation of the left political space. On Tuesday we're signing the coalition agreement between 20 political entities of the centre-left," said Atanas Zafirov. He spoke at a briefing after a meeting of the National Council and explained that the talks with some of the parties on clarifying the details related to the joint participation in the elections will continue.

CLIMATE - WATER - FARMING

bTV: More than half a million Bulgarians have experienced water supply interruptions this summer. Currently 575 settlements in Bulgaria are experiencing water utility disruptions, while 334 others have no central water supply, according to the data of the Association of Parks in Bulgaria.

"Nature surprises us every time, and every time we stubbornly fail to learn how to face these surprises. We have known about this surprise since 1940 - since the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology's observations, when the most significant drought period was recorded, then in 1985 it was also recorded. In recent years, it has surprised us in 2000, 2007 and 2012, and now it surprises us in 2024," said Assen Lichev, hydrogeologist and former Minister of Environment and Water.

He explained that after each of these years, governments adopt new measures to deal with either drought or floods in the country. However, he said, these are not implemented and so we are always left unprepared and "surprised" by climate change. "Now the government, surprised by the drought in 2024, is forming a task force to issue a document that will remain only on paper. The water losses in the pipelines are hardly decreasing and so the number of the unfortunate people condemned to water supply interruptions has hardly been decreasing for decades - this is the result of the inaction of the State," he said. "There is no unified water management in Bulgaria - this is the problem. Four ministers are supposedly responsible for water and this responsibility is being scattered across them. The current legislation pertaining to water supply management is "a legal monstrosity" and fails to regulate the water supply management.

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The drought of the last two months is about to burn the sunflower and corn, but has failed to affect grain. Despite the dry and hot weather the wheat harvest in Bulgaria's grain basked - Dobrudzha, is 6,700 kg-7,000 kg per hectare. This is about 100kg more than last year. According to the Agriculture Ministry, the total amount of grain harvested is record-high at over 6.7 million tonnes.

The regional directorate of agriculture in Veliko Tarnovo said that according to their observations, however, the yields of maize and sunflower this year will be 30% less than last year due to drought. The situation is the same for rapeseed, where more than 555 hectares have already failed.

As a result of hail and floods, 121.5 hectares of wheat, 370 hectares of sunflower and 74.5 hectares of maize have been destroyed.

Grain growers in Pazardzhik are also reporting lower yields this year. At 4,200 kilograms per hectare last year, yields have dropped to around 3,200 kilograms this year.

Farmers are hoping for rain, otherwise the sunflowers, which dry up and wither without watering, will suffer.

The drought is a huge problem, major crops are doomed without irrigation systems, said the director of the Complex Experiment Station in the village of Ivaylo, Blagoy Nedelchev.

He said more and more farmers preferred to grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in greenhouses.

Others were planting fruit trees as peaches, apples, pears, which do not require so much water.

"The situation is very bad and the worst thing is that year by year it is getting worse, the heat is relentless. There is not much variety of new crops. Mostly wheat, barley, sunflowers are grown. Low yields are also expected for vine growers, as the warm weather forced them to harvest grapes a month earlier. Usually it starts after the second half of September, but this year the campaign started in August.

The wine grapes have reached a sugar content of 24 degrees and if they are not harvested now, there is a danger that their grapes will turn to raisins, explained Prof. Hristina Yancheva, former rector of the Agrarian University and now Regional Governor of Plovdiv.

According to Prof. Yancheva, varieties should be sought that can adapt to climate change.