site.btaMedia Review: February 28

POLITICS

Trud writes that Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov presented the government's priorities to ambassadors of EU Member States at a meeting hosted by Polish Ambassador Maciej Szymanski, whose country holds the Presidency of the EU Council for the first half of 2025.

Zhelyazkov highlighted that Bulgaria aims to be a constructive, reliable, and predictable partner within the region, the EU, and NATO. He emphasized the cabinet's commitment to preparing a balanced State budget, ensuring stable public finances, and continuing efforts towards Bulgaria's eurozone accession.

Addressing the ambassadors, Zhelyazkov underlined Bulgaria's firm support for Ukraine, adding the EU must be involved whenever Ukraine’s future is discussed, as it directly affects European security. He insisted that Ukraine itself must always participate in such negotiations.

Zhelyazkov also reiterated the government’s firm condemnation of the recent attack on the buildings of the European Parliament and the European Commission in Sofia, calling any such actions against institutions unacceptable and contrary to the rule of law.

***

Trud and 24 Chasa cover politicians' reactions following the Supreme Court's decision ordering a recalculation of results from the October 27 elections.

GERB leader Boyko Borissov said new elections would be best for GERB according to current polling, though his party could also continue governing as a minority cabinet. Borissov criticized Vazrazhdane, saying they had become isolated in Parliament and had incited students to attack the EU building. On adopting the euro, Borissov explained a referendum is impossible due to existing international agreements and argued Bulgaria should join in 2026 rather than 2043. He sees no harm from entering the eurozone, noting prices are already high even with the lev, and suggested proper regulation could prevent excessive markups, as seen in Croatia and Germany.

Meanwhile, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF)–New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski expressed no concerns over the court's decision. "Nothing worries me; I will gain even more MPs in the next election," Peevski said, adding the elections were "100% legitimate" and noting, "There is no cancellation, only a recalculation. If something had been dishonest, the elections would have been annulled." Peevski dismissed criticism from Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF), calling their MPs "local tyrants."

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24 Chasa writes that GERB leader Boyko Borissov suggests Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov's cabinet could continue as a minority government, potentially seeking support from Democratic Bulgaria (DB) to maintain stability until Bulgaria enters the eurozone in early 2026. This scenario emerges from the possibility that the coalition could lose five MPs following the Constitutional Court's order to recalculate the results of the October 27 elections due to irregularities found in nearly half of the re-examined polling stations.

Borissov notes GERB could manage even with fewer MPs, emphasizing new elections would benefit GERB but not the country. He remains open to seeking Democratic Bulgaria (DB)'s support, although DB’s Nadezhda Iordanova declines to comment on hypothetical situations. Continue the Change (CC) Co-chair Assen Vassilev reiterates they will remain in opposition.

Duma and 24 Chasa report that BSP – United Left MP Kiril Dobrev says his party will not trigger early elections, stressing that Bulgaria currently needs a stable government rather than another vote. Dobrev emphasizes that the Constitutional Court's decisions must be implemented, not debated, and expresses confidence that the institutions will ensure election integrity. He calls for political responsibility, noting that citizens want stability and an end to constant elections. Regarding possible changes in parliamentary mandates following the Central Election Commission's recount, Dobrev advises patience until final results are announced, insisting it's crucial to uncover the truth about vote manipulation.

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Mediapool.bg reports that the parliamentary group of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – Democracy, Rights and Freedoms (MRF-DRF), led by Ahmed Dogan, accuses Rumen Spetsov, head of the National Revenue Agency (NRA), of using the agency to target political opponents of MRF–New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski.

In a statement presented by MP Levent Memish, MRF-DRF says the government has launched a campaign of repression against its members, supporters, MPs, and local mayors. Memish describes a raid on the home of the mayor of Dulovo (Northeastern Bulgaria) Nevhis Mustafa as psychological pressure and harassment, questioning who truly controls the government and who bears responsibility for these actions.

According to Memish, the NRA offices in Burgas (on the Black Sea), Shumen (Northeastern Bulgaria), and Targovishte (Northeastern Bulgaria) are intentionally targeting MRF-DRF activists. He directly accuses NRA Director Spetsov of conducting these politically motivated audits, describing him as a tool serving Peevski's interests. Memish warns that Peevski’s controversial model of political influence is not only intact but is also expanding through the appointment of MRF–New Beginning members across state institutions, including forestry, irrigation systems, the Interior Ministry, and agriculture departments.

***

bTV aired an interview with MP from Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Lena Borislavova, who said the current government was heading towards failure due to GERB leader Boyko Borissov’s unwillingness to break free from his dependencies on MRF-New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski.

Borislavova emphasized that this was Borissov’s second attempt within four years to sabotage his own participation in a cabinet, citing his insistence on supporting officials connected to Peevski, such as Rosen Karadimov.

She said that the Denkov-Gabriel cabinet had failed because of the refusal to grant Peevski guaranteed quotas in regulatory bodies. Borislavova concluded, "Once again, the cabinet is on the verge of collapse, not so much due to the Constitutional Court’s ruling but because of Borissov’s behaviour."

***

Bulgarian National Television (BNT), bTV, Nova TV, and Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) covered the statement of Central Election Commission (CEC) Deputy Chair Rositsa Mateva on Friday morning, who said CEC hoped to complete the recalculation of the October 2024 parliamentary election results and submit them to the Constitutional Court by the end of next week.

Mateva reiterated that CEC would neither recount ballots nor review election documents. She clarified:

"We received 2,204 protocols, and we will forward the information to the Constitutional Court, which will then make its final ruling. CEC will not make any decision based on the outcome of entering and calculating these results. Since [election service operator] Information Services is designated by the Election Code as the official vote-counter, no one else can perform this data entry and subsequent calculations. At this moment, we have not yet handed over any materials to Information Services from what the Constitutional Court has provided us."

Mateva also announced that computers would be delivered to CEC on Friday, and dedicated teams had been assigned to enter the data from these protocols twice, to avoid any errors. After double verification, the corrected data will be entered into CEC’s database. She expects the entire calculation process to conclude by the end of next week, after which the results will be submitted to the Constitutional Court. She highlighted common errors made by election commissions on election day, particularly valid ballots mistakenly counted as invalid.

Mateva pointed out discrepancies identified in invalid ballots—for example, one protocol listed 13 invalid ballots, while experts later found only 11. "From what we've seen, I cannot in any way say that these were manipulations," she emphasized.

According to Mateva, speculation about possible changes in parliamentary mandates at this stage is unfounded. She stressed that discrepancies affected multiple parties, including Velichie [Grandeur], which was narrowly below the 4% threshold required to enter Parliament.

***

Speaking to Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), Stoil Tsitselkov from the Union for Fair Elections group said the Constitutional Court had delivered a slap in the face to both the Central Election Commission (CEC) and election service operator Information Services, following the Court's ruling to recalculate the October 27 election results.

Tsitselkov said the most important thing was to understand the extent of the discrepancies, noting errors were found in 47% of the 2,204 checked protocols. "We’re roughly talking about one thousand polling stations," he explained, demanding public access to the detailed data to assess if the errors were serious enough to alter parliamentary mandates nationally.

***

BNT interviewed election expert Daniel Stefanov, who said the scale of the miscounted ballots problem must be thoroughly assessed before taking corrective action.

Stefanov explained that the experts appointed by the Constitutional Court have already completed a recount of ballots from the sections designated by the court. He clarified that election service operator Information Services would simply incorporate the new data into the existing results.

"We need to first determine the scope and nature of the counting errors—whether they happened in large or small polling stations—so we can take the right actions," Stefanov said.

He added that the new results would be easy to compare with the official ones, ensuring transparency. According to Stefanov, Bulgaria generally handles election data transparently and effectively, noting that even in ideal conditions, manual ballot counting usually has at least a 1% error margin.

***

Nova TV and BNR covered GERB leader Boyko Borissov, who, speaking on ongoing disputes over positions in ministries and regulators with other parties, said his patience had run out long ago. He confirmed GERB had spoken with There Is Such a People (TISP) and BSP – United Left, clearly stating that for the budget and regulators, GERB did not want the support of Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF)–New Beginning. Either there must be a majority with the coalition partners Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) to adopt these measures, or they simply won't pass, Borissov explained.

He also criticized the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), blaming Continue the Change (CC) and Democratic Bulgaria (DB) for inserting unrelated reforms aimed at benefiting specific interests. "Other EU member states quickly received their billions, while our colleagues from CC-DB put so-called reforms in the plan to make Boyko Rashkov chair of the Anti-corruption commission," Borissov said. According to him, "the money has already been lost, with only minor payments remaining."

Borissov described ARF’s public call for changing the head of the Joint Governance Council, Kostadin Angelov, as a tactical mistake, firmly expressing his disagreement with Angelov's removal. He also accused ARF of seeking posts in ministries and regulators, mentioning that ARF proposed six candidates for regulatory positions and demanded posts in the Foreign Ministry.

Borissov concluded by emphasizing the critical need to pass the 2025 State Budget, adding, "We will continue to show great patience and make huge efforts until January 1, 2026."

ECONOMY

Trud writes that despite Bulgaria fulfilling 85% of the reforms required for the second payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), there is still a risk it may not materialize. Deputy Prime Minister and Innovation and Growth Minister Tomislav Donchev expresses optimism it would not happen.

Bulgaria has not implemented the planned projects for four years, leaving half of them at "extreme risk." "If we start projects now that will take three years, we will have to fund them from the State budget," Donchev explained.

He adds that the RRP largely remains as he originally submitted it but notes that the CC-DB government led by Kiril Petkov had some projects rewritten. "Projects with a real chance of completion will proceed; those that cannot be completed will have to be removed from the RRP," Donchev said.

The minister urged project participants to accelerate implementation, highlighting the slow spending of funds from the European Commission's first tranche. Donchev also warned, "We need to take on debt because we have a deficit. Bulgaria has had a deficit for four years, and it is covered by debt."

***

In response to recent comments by Donchev on RRP, a European Commission representative says discussions with Bulgaria on the second payment request, submitted in October 2023, are still ongoing. The EC spokesperson notes that last year EC issued a preliminary assessment noting that some key milestones had not yet been met. At this stage, constructive dialogue with Bulgaria continues to address outstanding issues and find a resolution. The delays mainly affect Bulgaria’s energy sector, particularly the liberalization of the electricity market, which faces political resistance. The Bulgarian government aims to adopt necessary legislation by the end of August to preserve as much funding as possible. The Commission says it is too early to determine whether or to what extent payments might be withheld but expresses hope for progress on Bulgaria’s recovery plan soon.

***

Meanwhile, Regional Development Minister Ivan Ivanov attributes the potential loss of RRP funding not to incomplete reforms, but to "criminal inaction." He highlights delays of over 15 months in the residential renovation programme managed by his ministry, describing the situation as "almost fatally delayed." Only BGN 100 million out of a total BGN 1.123 billion allocated have so far been contracted. Ivanov said the government is making every effort to accelerate the selection of contractors by municipalities, with a final implementation deadline of June 30, 2026. Funds for any projects excluded due to delays will be covered by the 2025 State budget. Ivanov blames previous caretaker and regular governments for "criminal inaction," specifically during 2023 and 2024.

24 Chasa reports that President Rumen Radev expects the current government to secure the second and third payments under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), following the example of caretaker Prime Minister Galab Donev’s cabinet. Radev points out that the only payment so far was secured under Donev’s government, criticising subsequent negligence that delayed key projects such as air medical services and a space monitoring centre.

He urges stronger support for small businesses, reduced bureaucracy, and investment in innovative industries to position Bulgaria as a regional centre for advanced technologies.

***

Capital reports that the Bulgarian state continues to show a special preference for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), as seen in Parliament's recent efforts to shield the Church from competition (the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria) despite the constitutional separation of church and state. The State budget proposed by Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov's cabinet sets a record by increasing the BOC's subsidy by 63%, bringing it to BGN 62.8 million. In contrast, the subsidy for the Chief Mufti's Office increases by about 30%.

The Church justifies the increase as necessary for staff retention and inflation compensation. With roughly 1,885 church employees nationwide, this would mean an average monthly salary of around BGN 2,700, which is BGN 500 above the national average for 2024. Notably, the salary increase for priests exceeds even the controversial 50% rise in the Interior Ministry.

Capital also highlights a broader issue: BOC, despite substantial property holdings, revenue-generating activities, and state support through multiple channels, pays no taxes. A recent National Revenue Agency audit issued a tax revision act that the Church is contesting.

Finally, Capital criticizes the lack of public debate over the growing closeness between Church and State, warning that this dynamic increasingly resembles the state’s purchase of indulgences.

CRIME

Trud, Dnevnik and Mediapool.bg write that Acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov has asked the National Assembly to lift the immunity of four Vazrazhdane MPs: Nikola Dimitrov, Slavcho Krumov, Yordan Todorov and Ivaylo Tchorbov, and mayoral candidate for Sofia's Oborishte borough, Petar Ananiev, following their involvement in violent protests in Sofia on February 22, 2025.

The Sofia City Prosecution Office gathered sufficient evidence indicating the five committed acts of severe hooliganism, described as grossly disrespectful and exceptionally audacious. Dimitrov, Todorov and Tchorbov resisted law enforcement; Todorov committed two separate acts of hooliganism. Tchorbov faces additional charges for destroying police uniforms with paint and setting fire to the European Commission Representation building in Sofia, endangering nearby individuals and property. Krumov faces charges for throwing fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the same building. The prosecution has requested detention for Tchorbov and Krumov, and bail of BGN 10,000 for the others.

Trud writes that later the same day, the Central Election Commission stripped Ananiev of his immunity, allowing criminal proceedings against him for participating in the attack on the European Commission Representation.

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Dnevnik reports that lawyer Aleksandar Kashamov, executive director of the Access to Information Programme, demands clear answers from the Interior Ministry regarding why regular police, rather than fully-equipped gendarmerie units stationed nearby, handled Vazrazhdane’s violent protest in Sofia on February 22. Kashamov highlights procedural failures by authorities during the demonstration, which escalated into vandalism at the House of Europe, causing damage and injuries to police officers. He points out that special gendarmerie forces were ready and waiting nearby but remained unused, raising concerns over who gave the orders and why.

Kashamov emphasises that prosecutors must thoroughly investigate possible incitement to hatred and violence, particularly involving Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov. He describes Vazrazhdane's recent publication of citizens’ personal data as reminiscent of fascist and communist methods aimed at spreading fear and division in society. Although he stresses that banning Vazrazhdane is not legally justified due to constitutional protections for political association, Kashamov insists individual members must be held accountable through legitimate legal actions and sanctions.

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Telegraph reports that Vazrazhdane responded defiantly after Acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov requested the immunity of four of its MPs and a mayoral candidate. The party says the deputies targeted by the prosecution are fighting for "the freedom of those imprisoned for political reasons" and for citizens' democratic right to a referendum. Vazrazhdane accuses Sarafov of acting as a tool for GERB Leader Boyko Borissov’s "regime," supported by MRF-New Beginning Leader Delyan Peevski, claiming their actions constitute harassment and repression. The party concludes, "They will not scare us."

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 Telegraph reports that Education Minister Krasimir Valchev revealed the European Polytechnic University is involved in migrant trafficking rather than providing education. During parliamentary discussions on the 2025 State budget, Valchev said Ministry of Education inspectors were recently denied access to the university. He added there is clear evidence of no real educational activity there for several years, citing minimal utility bills and no visible students or faculty. Almost all enrolled are from Nigeria, with information on only 10% residing legally in Bulgaria. Valchev urged MPs to propose legislative changes allowing closure of institutions that don't conduct genuine teaching. Eliza Stefanova from the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency warned the university might exploit legal loopholes again, as it did previously when accreditation was withdrawn.

Dnevnik reports that police uncovered an illegal vape factory in Sofia’s Lyulin borough. Sofia Police Chief Lyubomir Nikolov has confirmed that officers have confiscated 17,000 liquid-filled vapes and materials to produce over 90,000 more. Two men, aged 24 and 45, are facing charges for possessing excise goods without tax labels. One of the suspects was convicted of the same offense in 2021, while the other has a prior police record. Both are currently detained for 72 hours, and prosecutors will request their permanent detention in court.

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In an interview for Capital, European Prosecutor Teodora Georgieva says her office faces significant institutional resistance during major fraud investigations involving EU funds. Georgieva describes public procurement as "a well-developed scheme for siphoning public money," highlighting that certain companies regularly win lucrative contracts despite lacking necessary qualifications or experience.

She provides specific examples, mentioning delays caused by police inaction, such as in the case of a EUR 4.5 million contract for trolleybuses in Vratsa falsely declared Polish, but actually from Belarus. "Even though we had judicial authorization, police did not carry out the search for six or seven days. When we finally entered, nothing was left," Georgieva says.

Similar abuses were uncovered in electric bus procurement deals in Sofia, Varna, Burgas, and Stara Zagora, where buses were purchased "with double or triple markups." Georgieva adds, "The EU gives us money to buy Volvo or Mercedes, but instead we buy from a Chinese manufacturer, which even OLAF couldn't trace." As a result, OLAF recommended full recovery of EU funds.

Regarding obstruction from state institutions, Georgieva mentions the Chiren gas storage expansion: "Due to obstacles from the Interior Ministry, we couldn't immediately carry out searches at Bulgartransgaz. When we finally got in, key evidence was gone." A similar situation occurred in the Varna port project investigation, where case files remained with police for eight months, delaying prosecution.

She also criticizes practices such as using shell companies and questionable consortiums in large infrastructure projects, including the Zheleznitsa tunnel.

She explains that a common fraud scheme involves forming consortiums, usually made up of "one or two shell companies serving as fronts, along with a large construction or similar company that provides a certificate claiming it has completed similar projects." After securing the contract with these deceptive credentials, the larger company exits. The consortium then receives large advance payments, and the actual work is subcontracted at a much lower cost. Georgieva provides an example: "Two companies with no real capability receive 100 million without doing any work, then pay a subcontractor only 10 million. As a result, we end up paying 110 million for work valued at just 10 million. This scheme is common and well-established." Subcontractors agree to these terms because it's often their only means of survival.

Georgieva insists on legislative reform, advocating criminalizing customs fraud and corporate criminal liability. She emphasizes the need for dedicated investigative teams: "It’s crucial that we have separate police teams directly cooperating with the European Prosecutor’s office." Despite institutional obstacles, she highlights achievements like freezing EUR 4.5 million in illicit assets and recovering BGN 80 million in the Chiren case.