site.btaMedia Review: April 10

NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE ON CORRUPTION

The Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh) parliamentary group filed a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet on corruption on Thursday. Vazrazhdane and Velichie announced they would support it.

The Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) runs an interview with Kalin Slavov, Executive Director of Transparency International where he speaks about how people are elected to the regulators and an upcoming no-confidence motion against the government over corruption. “Much of the government is conceived in darkness. Considering that, it is hard to expect transparency, accountability and anti-corruption combat,” he said. He went on to say: "The individuals in this government are familiar from before; they don’t start with a blank slate in their political biographies. You can see how the regulators are being manned. Where is the element of transparency and accountability in the selection of the individuals nominated for these control and regulatory bodies? Nominations are put forward through political headquarters and sometimes even directly through political figures. This is supposed to be a selection of the best professionals in a given field and those with the most experience. The State is in a difficult situation and requires competent management.“

ROAD SAFETY

Trud quotes a Road Safety Institute (RSI) statement shared to the media. According to a RSI check, the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) has spent over BGM 2.5 billion on road repairs and maintenance over the last three years - an increase of nearly ten times compared to the previous period, with no improvement in road infrastructure. The RSI analysis adds that RIA “stubbornly continues to operate in a blur by not publishing its monthly financial statements”. The analysis reaches the following conclusions: the Agency’s administration is incompetent to manage resources for road maintenance and repair and there is corruption in its ranks.

On Wednesday, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) MP Andrey Tsekov said that CC-DB calls on Regional Development Minister Ivan Ivanov to immediately dismiss Road Infrastructure Agency’s Management Board Chair Yordan Valchev for dissemination of false, misleading information about the state of the national road I-3 in the section between the villages of Telish and Radomirtsi, in which on March 31 the life of a Bulgarian child was lost.

On bTV's morning show on Thursday, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria MP Andrey Tsekov said that the Pleven-Lukovit road, on which the crash happened, has not been overhauled in more than 20 years. "There is a signal from the State Road Safety Agency that the road needs to be repaired. There is inaction on the part of the RIA. Because of this, the RIA’s Board Chair should be dismissed," Tsekov stressed.

ILLEGAL CIGARETTE RING BUST AFTERMATH

On April 2, tensions between Interior Minister Daniel Mitov and the opposition Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition flared up over an alleged attempt by anti-mafia police chiefs to abort an ongoing operation against an illegal cigarette ring and tip off the offenders of the impending arrests. The rank-and-file officers defied the order and went ahead with the raid, risking their careers. That led to a haul of contraband cigarettes worth BGN 8 million, according to the BOEC civic movement which published a video and screenshots of a WhatsApp chat purportedly between the police officers and their superiors. 

Radio Free Europe’s Bulgarian website features an article on the defeated motion for a hearing of Interior Minister Daniel Mitov and police officers who uncovered an illegal cigarette ring in Plovdiv in Parliament. Initially, the motion was adopted as almost the entire BSP – United Left parliamentary group voted for it, but after an intervention of GERB MP Kostadin Angelov, the socialists reversed their vote and the hearing was rejected, the media outlet highlights. After the first vote, National Assembly Chair Nataliya Kiselova said she hopes for a revote and Angelov immediately asked for one. During the second vote Angelov looked insistently at the socialist parliamentary group and even waved his hand twice, then showed a thumbs down sign as a reminder that the they should not support the request for a hearing, the article says.

On Bulgarian National Television's morning show, BSP - United Left Deputy Floor Leader Maya Dimitrova said that the Interior Minister could not be held responsible for this scandal. She commented on Wednesday's footage from Parliament in which Angelov tries to get the attention of the socialists and shows them how to vote with a thumbs down sign. “There is no way that any parliamentary group can influence the way the BSP - United Left - votes,” she argued. Dimitrova said that there are too many hearings in Parliament and parliamentary time is being wasted with them. She added there was no way Mitov and the police officers could give information in plenary as an investigation into the case was ongoing.

ECONOMY

Mediapool.bg runs an analysis about a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday of Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov about a deal with Turkiye’s BOTAS, which is largely seen as detrimental for Bulgaria. Here is what the e-zine writes: “With a surprise hearing of Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov on Wednesday regarding the agreement with BOTAS for reserving capacity at Turkish terminals for liquefied gas, the transmission network, and gas storage facilities in Turkey, his fellow party members from GERB once again stirred up the mess left behind by the last caretaker government of [President] Rumen Radev and then Energy Minister Rosen Hristov. What Stankov said before the break - because Hristov and former Bulgartransgaz head Deniza Slateva, who signed the document, did not attend the parliamentary hearing - was no different from what had already transpired within the framework of the ad hoc BOTAS commission two parliaments ago, whose report was sent to the State Agency for National Security (DANS) and the Prosecutor's Office. However, no deputy requested a hearing of SANS and the prosecution service to ask them whether they were working on the case, whether they had questioned Hristov, Slateva, or even the head of Bulgartransgaz, Vladimir Malinov. […] Also, no one asked Stankov, who just days ago discussed potential revision of the agreement with BOTAS with Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, for details of their meeting.” The analysis goes on to say that there are still ways to make the deal with BOTAS beneficial for Bulgaria as well but for that purpose the government needs to start working hard in this direction.

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On Nova Television's morning show, National Sheep and Goat Breeding Association Co-Chair Simeon Karakolev said that Bulgaria imported over 350 tonnes of meat from New Zealand and 50 tonnes from North Macedonia. The New Zealand lamb is deep frozen. "For the importer this is known, but not for the consumer. The date of production on the label is probably the date it was packaged, not the date it was frozen. That's why we have referred it to the Consumer Protection Commission and the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency," he said. Karakolev pointed out that Bulgarians consume around 500,000 lambs around Easter and St George's Day, with 10-15% of the meat imported.

TRUMP TARIFFS, BULGARIANS IN US

BNR runs two interviews that focus on the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

Asen Asenov, a doctor of economics at the American University in Washington D.C., says that the markets are in for more shocks. He believes that the tariffs were imposed as part of the art of deal making and sought to pressure all trading partners into seeking negotiations. He said further: “In the past week, the American and global capital markets, the stock exchanges, were in absolute panic, and one of Trump’s closest people lost tens of billions of dollars. The world was approaching a recession, and perhaps something bigger, very quickly. […] The toughest nut to crack will be China. They have shown that they will fight to the end. There are many unknowns. My expectation is that there will be many more crashes and uncertainties on the global markets, which will create quite a stir. To expect that Trump will make a deal with all these countries the way he likes it – that is too optimistic an expectation."

Political analyst Hristo Anastassov told BNR that the biggest winner of the war of tariffs will be China and the biggest losers the American people. He also said it will be a disaster for the EU if the member country leaders start acting on their own. “It will be a disaster for the EU if the leaders of each country start going up to Trump one by one to beg for concessions for their own country. So far the EU response has been totally adequate,” he said. He went on to comment: “It is an illusion to think that concessions will be made [for individual member states] as Europe is being hit hard. The EU response must be very firm, with the enormous risk this carries, but that risk is in the hands of the Americans. The approach of the European Commission and the European Council has been balanced and reasonable. We are not 27 different countries, but one EU, and we are the largest single market in the world."

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A Deutsche Welle Bulgaria piece explores the trend of Bulgarian immigrants in the US supporting President Donald Trump. The articles states that Bulgarians believe in messiahs and are looking for a “strong saviour”. “Many Bulgarians in the US support Donald Trump for the same reason Bulgarians at home support Vladimir Putin - because of their admiration for demagogues and dictators,” said Vanya Kramer - a Bulgarian journalist based in Chicago. Kramer said education, integration into American society and media literacy are key. "Many of them (Trump supporters) do not read English well and are informed about the situation here by Bulgarian media of dubious origin. From this lack of understanding come confused notions of democratic values," she believes. “Bulgarians also have a rather low media culture to discern truth from falsehood, news from opinion, they tend to believe more in conspiracies,” BG Voice Editor-in-Chief Yasen Darakov added.

DEFENCE 

24 Chasa quotes Defence Ministry's report on the Armed Forces’ modernisation programme implemented last year. According to the document, the Ministry is close to securing two new major arms deals with the US worth a total of nearly BGN 1 billion. According to unofficial information of the daily, a deal for the purchase of coastal anti-ship missile systems NSM is in an advanced stage and will amount to about BGN 500 million. Bulgaria currently has a 1980s-built Soviet-made Rubezh missile system, which is not capable of penetrating the anti-missile defenses of a modern battleship, the article states. The second deal is for a communications information system for field deployment of a divisional headquarters. Up to BGN 500 million is earmarked for this project, but the Ministry is still awaiting an offer from the US. The purchase of the equipment is necessary because of Bulgaria's ambition to become a host country of a US multinational division headquarters. Negotiations are underway with France for radars and advanced howitzers. The Ministry is abandoning the purchase of HIMARS mobile artillery systems, as their price has risen since the start of the war in Ukraine. The Armed Forces have turned to the alternative to HIMARS - the Israeli PULS system. It is heavier, which reduces its mobility, but it can carry more missiles and is cheaper.

HEALTH

Telegraph features an interview with epidemiologist Todor Kantardzhiev, who notes that pertussis cases in the country have risen in the past two weeks. He explained that the disease mostly affects unvaccinated children and adults where the vaccine no longer works.