site.btaMedia Review: January 15

PROSECUTOR GENERAL'S ELECTION

The green light given by the National Assembly Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs on Tuesday to halt the procedure for electing a prosecutor general is a leading topic in the Bulgarian media. A text to this effect is contained in a bill to amend the Judicial Power Act. As an immediate objective, the discontinuation of the election is intended to bar acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov from becoming a permanent holder of the post.

According to the main story in 24 Chasa, a draft provision in the bill which would set a six-month limit for the tenure of an acting prosecutor general was not supported by the majority in the committee. It remains to be seen whether the bill will be approved by the full House on second reading on Wednesday, January 15, the daily notes. Sarafov, the only candidate for prosecutor general in the current election procedure, is to be given a hearing at 10am on January 16. Even if the halting of the procedure is approved definitively by the full Parliament, which is very likely to happen, the amendment cannot become effective by the time of the hearing, because it requires promulgation in the State Gazette, whose next regular issue will be published on January 17, the paper explains. Therefore, it will be interesting to see what the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) will do about it. The SJC can either wait until the amendment enters into force or halt the election before that. In either case, the decision should be made on January 16 by the SJC Plenum which is expected to hear Sarafov for the election, the daily says.

Duma says on page one that, although the amendments cannot be promulgated before the election on January 16, President Rumen Radev may refuse to decree Sarafov's appointment as prosecutor general if he is elected by the SJC. The daily reports that, on Tuesday, the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee voted down a proposal to prevent an expired SJC (like the current one) from electing a prosecutor general and presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court. It also rejected an idea to establish a double majority rule for electing leaders of the supreme courts.

In a frontpage comment in Duma, headlined "The Usual Trick," Alexander Simov says that the Judicial Power Bill is a concoction of ideas not supported by a vision, a concept, or sober thinking at least. Yet again, we are inundated with a muddy flow of improvisation. It is little wonder why the judicial reform is, like communism, put off until a bright, indefinite future, Simov says.

MediaPool.bg reports that before the parliamentary committee meeting, when it was already clear that most of the restrictions would be dropped, lawyer Velislav Velichkov of the Justice for All Initiative called on the committee to act responsibly to pull the prosecuting magistracy out of what he described as an "absurd situation." Velichkov warned: "Another Geshev is in the making. You are getting into the same mess, and there is no way out of it." The reference was to Ivan Geshev, who was prosecutor general between 2019 and 2023 with Sarafov as his deputy. According to Velichkov, the committee softened the bill after the parties negotiating for a new regular government worked out some arrangements.

In another comment covered in the MediaPool.bg story, MP Lena Borislavova (Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria) said that the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee rejected all provisions "which could have prevented the emergence of another Sarafov." Borislavova said: "The way that the majority in the Legal Affairs Committee voted earlier today [Tuesday] is not an occasion to rejoice. It is not a victory of the rule of law. It temporarily suspends an outrage, which is what would occur if Sarafov was cemented for seven years after a procedure with no other candidates, but it does not deprive him of the possibility to keep doing what he is doing now. This is not a genuine judicial reform. It is just a timid step to end an outrageously enduring appointment."

On the morning talk show of BNT1, the main channel of Bulgarian National Television, one of the two hosts, Simeon Ivanov, said that Tuesday's developments may seem like a triumph for some of the interested parties in the judicial system, but a number of legal ifs and buts limit the decision only to the January 16 election at the SJC and the current procedure. Former justice minister Anton Stankov said on the show that the committee decision was politically motivated. "What is at stake is the formation of a government," Stankov added. 

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Acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov is trying to ensure that the public is denied access to information about investigations, SegaBG.com reports. Sarafov has initiated a statutory interpretation case with the Supreme Administrative Court, apparently hoping for it to conclude that citizens have no right to access prosecutorial acts in high-profile cases. The acting President of the Supreme Administrative Court, Georgi Cholakov, has given the go-ahead for the statutory interpretation case. This is yet another attempt by an authority to limit the application of the Access to Public Information Act, which has been successfully used by citizens and journalists to expose wrongdoings of the Establishment, the website comments.

POLITICS

Ahmed Dogan wants to be "the fourth partner" in the future three-party government coalition of GERB-UDF, BSP-United Left, and There Is Such a People, according to an article in 24 Chasa. The daily quotes participants in the government-forming negotiations as saying that Dogan's Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF), whose parliamentary group is called Democracy for Rights and Freedoms (DRF) and is chaired by Dzhevdet Chakarov, wants to ensure its "equal and legitimate participation" in the ruling majority with a signature to the official agreement of the future government coalition. None of the three likely members of the future coalition would welcome a fourth partner joining them in this way, the daily says. Therefore, various options were considered on Tuesday for a document which could be signed by the DRF, 24 Chasa reports.

Trud says that the DRF's desire to be included in the deal for the new government caused the government-forming negotiations to run less than smoothly. That is why GERB's candidate for prime minister, Rosen Zhelyazkov, will likely sit at the negotiating table until the last moment before visiting the President's Administration to receive a government-forming mandate. The paper quotes participants in the negotiations as saying that if the DRF is not accepted as a "fourth partner" and refuses to support the new government, things will hardly come to setting up a minority government, because this would mean a constant quest for thematic majorities, with one party or another raising conditions all the time.

ECONOMY & HEALTH

"Schengen Entry by Land Catches Bulgaria Unprepared," caps a signed article on SegaBG.com. The author says that the much awaited yet unexpectedly quick opening of the internal Schengen land borders with Bulgaria and Romania on January 1 caught Bulgaria's central government, municipal authorities and private interests by surprise. For one thing, the government failed to provide enough border crossing capacity for the increased traffic via the borders with Romania and Greece. Also, the competent government ministries were too slow in organizing risk-assessment-based selective control of vehicles away from the border in a way that does not cause traffic congestion. The author points to a failure to introduce an online system allowing the charge for heavy goods vehicles crossing the Danube Bridge at Ruse to be paid in advance, so that the vehicles do not have to stop at the border as a remote reading device confirms the payment of the charge, like in the other countries in the Schengen area.

Operators of parking lots by the border were caught by surprise, too, the story goes. They have particularly strong interest in having trucks continue to spend time waiting at the border and being required to park their vehicles for payment and to receive a number from the parking facility operator, without which they may not cross the border. The practice was abandoned after angry drivers protested against the pressure to use a parking service and wait for their turn in the first few days of 2025, when there were no waiting lines, the website says.

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Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov's decision that the growing household consumption of electricity is to be met with expensive electricity from the Maritsa East 2 Thermal Power Plant will add BGN 70 million to consumer bills, Trud estimates in its main story. The daily notes that the price of electricity for household consumers increased by an average of 8.42% as of January 1 by decision of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission. Strangely, the decision is not based on a price rise request by electricity producers; it is a largely political decision by Energy Minister Malinov, the paper says. It notes that households are to be compensated for the high prices of electricity, beginning on July 1. Under the Energy Act, from the middle of 2025 onward, electricity distribution companies should buy electricity for household consumption at market prices and sell it at fixed prices, and should receive compensation for the difference. But the compensation will be paid only until the end of the year, and on January 1, 2026, households will come out on the free market for electricity.

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Clinics and hospital wards across Bulgaria suspend surgery or go out of operation due to a shortfall of personnel, mainly nurses, MediaPool.bg reports. The website has interviewed Milka Vasileva, President of the Bulgarian Association of Health Professionals in Nursing, who says that it is very difficult to get out of the situation, because a positive change requires more young people to be motivated to receive education in nursing, which takes at least four years. After the interviewer notes that 65% of graduating nursing students stay out of the Bulgarian healthcare system, Vasileva says the starting wage for a professional in nursing should be at least three times the minimum wage in Bulgaria. "The money issue, the humiliating treatment, the staff shortage and the excessive workload alienate young people. They make an investment but get no return. This is about work, this is about money, this is about responsibility for human lives," Vasileva says.