site.btaMedia Review: October 7

OVERVIEW

No single topic dominates Bulgarian media on Friday, although the 2026 State Budget still stands out.

2026 STATE BUDGET

On Nova TVs morning programme former deputy finance minister and member of the Governing Board of the Bulgarian National Bank Lyudmila Elkova warned that the 2026 draft budget mirrors the 2025 one and carries forward a deficit of around 18 billion, financed largely through debt. She noted that salary increases mainly benefit the state administration, not the broader economy. Rumen Radev, Chair of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, criticized the government for not consulting businesses or unions on key budget parameters and said employers refused to act as a “stamp”. He added that many small companies may not survive after January 1, and that there is “growing readiness for protests” among business. It remains unclear whether unions, employers, and the government will sit down together to discuss Bulgaria’s 2026 State Budget.

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"The budget is neither left-wing nor right-wing, it is mixed. This complex [ruling] coalition cannot afford to have a strongly reformist budget," Union of Democratic Forces Chair Rumen Hristov, said on bTVs morning programme. "I have reservations, but we will support it on first reading. My reservations have to do with the 100% increase in dividend tax and the additional pension contribution," Hristov said. "An agreement is good when both sides are a little dissatisfied, if we are talking about trade unions and employers. Almost satisfied trade unions and very dissatisfied employers," Hristov added. 

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Duma daily’s front page article quotes Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) – United Left Floor Leader Dragomir Stoynev saying that after the 2026 budget is adopted, BSP will begin talks on restoring a progressive income tax and introducing a tax-free minimum for the poorest. He argued that Bulgaria still has the lowest tax burden in the EU and needs reform to restore fairness and reduce inequality, “those who earn more should pay more.” Stoynev also proposed raising social insurance contributions by 2% to secure pensions and cover the deficit in the National Social Security Institute; increasing the maximum insurable income so higher earners pay proportionally more; raising the dividend tax by 5% to ensure equal treatment of labour and capital. He criticized widespread under-the-table payments and misuse of flat taxation, saying it has benefited the wealthy while Bulgaria remains a country of working poor. Stoynev added that the Left is “in the government not to defend big capital but to restore social justice and solidarity.”

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Segabg.com has an article on the declared full protest readiness by the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union if the government enforces a requirement for pharmacies to use only sales management software registered with the National Revenue Agency, as proposed in the 2026 State Budget bill. In a letter to Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, the union warns that this requirement is practically impossible to implement. The Union argues that, starting January 1, 2026, pharmacies would be unable to operate, leaving patients without access to medicines and triggering an unprecedented national health crisis. They explain that pharmacies already use highly specialized software systems integrated in real time with the National Health Information System, the National Health Insurance Fund, the Specialized Electronic System for Tracking and Analyzing Medicines, Included in the Positive Drug List, and the National Verification Register of the Bulgarian Medicines Verification Organisation. According to the Union, such complex systems cannot be registered with the NRA within the given timeframe, making the proposed regulation unrealistic and potentially dangerous for public health.

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Capital weekly’s front page article is headlined: Budget 2026: This is a Heist. The Zhelyazkov cabinet and the parties behind it are crippling business by raising taxes and social security contributions, introducing even stricter and pointless control measures by the National Revenue Agency, the article reads. If the already significantly increased salaries of police officers and military personnel are frozen, pension contributions may not be raised. The spiral of rising costs without reforms and debt accumulation will lead to further tax increases and economic crisis. According to the business community, this budget is harmful to the economy, but politicians are focused on the next elections.

BUDGET/JUDICIARY

Mediapool.bg has a story on the record budget of over EUR 1 billion for the judiciary proposed by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), despite the fact that key judicial institutions are operating with contested legitimacy. By 2026, the average salary of a judge will near EUR 5,000 per month, and SJC members will earn over EUR 11,000, while the Council itself is legally barred from appointing top judicial officials because its members have overstayed their mandates by four years. The Court of Justice of the EU has also suspended the powers of Bulgaria’s Judicial Inspectorate, and the Supreme Court of Cassation has ruled the current acting Prosecutor General, Borislav Sarafov, as illegitimate for the same reason. Experts criticize the situation as a “luxury budget without justice”, arguing that Bulgaria shows a systemic refusal to deliver justice, evidenced by over 30,000 judge recusals this year and a 61st place ranking globally in rule of law. "This lavish budget is a deliberate strategy, it provides comfort for those who are convenient, while at the same time there are actions to intimidate and threaten judges who do not keep silent,” Economist Ekaterina Baksanova from the Institute for Market Economics says. She suggests a moratorium on new judicial appointments, noting that Bulgaria has twice the European average number of prosecutors and three times more administrative staff, despite a shrinking population. Bilyana Gyaurova-Wegertseder from the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives calls for reform of the salary system, which now automatically grows with public sector wages, leading to unsustainable pay increases. She proposes fixed salary ranges, as in Austria, to ensure budget transparency and accountability. Both analysts warn that the current system combines high pay, low transparency, and political stagnation, undermining both public trust and judicial independence.

LUKOIL

The news that Gunvor has withdrawn from its deal to buy Lukoil’s assets is very worrying, Continue the Change Chair Assen Vassilev said in an interview on Bulgarian National Television’s morning programme. He explained that the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces the Magnitsky sanctions, rejected the transaction, leaving no legal path forward. Vassilev warned that if the Bulgarian government does not act by November 21, all banks will stop servicing Lukoil, preventing the Neftochim refinery in Burgas from buying crude oil or operating financially. He said a contingency plan for such a scenario exists, developed in 2022 in preparation for the War in Ukraine. The plan foresees "what actions should be taken from the moment the sanctions are announced. There is a plan, but it should have been activated two weeks ago because the timeframe is very tight and the tasks that need to be completed are very difficult," Vassilev said. He urged the current government to take immediate action to prevent supply disruptions, warning that a shutdown of Lukoil’s operations could cripple Bulgaria’s economy.

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With regard to Lukoil Neftochim, UDF leader Rumen Hristov said on bTV that he hopes that large Western companies with traditions will show interest in the company. He said that the Council of Ministers is working actively which is the reason that no hearing has been scheduled in the plenary hall in view of confidentiality. "Work is now underway on the special administrator and his powers, to be able to negotiate the sale of the company's assets. We should not worry about fuel shortages and sharp price increases, as global prices are low," Hristov said.

LOCAL POLITICS

Segabg.com has an analysis titled: Mayors and councillors faced two unique years of considerable confusion. Eleven interim votes were held during this half term, and the mayor of a large city spent months in custody. Local governments are now marking the midpoint of their term, the article begins, two years that can best be described as neither a success nor a failure, a period of confusion without clear conclusions. There’s a sense that “the night is pregnant” something is coming, but what and when remain a mystery. The same could be said of national politics. Since local government is always a reflection of state government, it’s worth noting the key factors that have shaped it: the initially mild but later intensifying clashes between GERB and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria within their governing coalition; the mayors from the “authentic right” in several regional centres, who had to prove they could govern effectively in a predictably difficult environment; the internal split within the Movement for Rights and Freedoms; and, finally, the increased involvement of the Prosecutor’s Office in a number of municipalities.

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While Sofia’s Chief Architect Bogdana Panayotova is being treated in hospital, sudden dismissals have begun within her team, sources told Sega. Mayor Vassil Terziev has asked for her resignation, citing “differences of opinion,” but Panayotova has refused to step down, arguing that she was chosen in a competition, not appointed. Meanwhile, staff reshuffles have started in the Architecture and Town Planning Directorate, which Panayotova leads. Among those reportedly being removed are Svetlomir Kolev, head of Town Planning, and Bojidar Kassabov, head of construction department at Sofengineering. More changes are expected. Terziev’s team is proposing a new structure for Sofia Municipality, creating a deputy mayor for town planning with strategic and political responsibilities, aiming to restore a balance between political accountability and expert independence. According to the Municipality, the chief architect will remain an expert role, responsible for permits and legal oversight, while the mayor and deputy mayor will carry the political responsibility for urban development decisions. The conflict is said to stem from disputes over the new team of the deputy mayor for town planning, Panayotova allegedly resisted transferring members of her team to the new deputy mayor. However, her recent actions, such as sending documentation on the controversial Zlaten vek high-rise to prosecutors and suspending a skyscraper project on Cherni Vrah Blvd, may also have influenced the mayor’s decision to ask for Panayotova’s resignation. Terziev, currently on a trip to Brazil, informed Panayotova of his demand via text message. If she continues to refuse to resign, she may face disciplinary dismissal.

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Mediapool.bg reports on the suspension of separate waste collection in 16 boroughs of Sofia, including Lyulin and Krasno Selo, where garbage problems have persisted for over a month. The recycling organization Ecobulpack announced it is stopping service due to “objective impossibility” to continue under current municipal conditions. It claims the city refuses to accept non-recyclable waste, leaving storage sites full. The municipality, however, says the waste in question is recyclable and therefore cannot be landfilled. This dispute between Sofia Municipality and Ecobulpack over what qualifies as recyclable waste has now halted separate collection in much of the city, worsening the ongoing waste crisis.

POLITICS/HEALTHCARE

Trud daily’s front page article is on the resignation of the Public Board for the Construction of a National Children's Hospital. The reason for it being the refusal of the Health Ministry to provide information on the construction. The construction tender may be compromised, Health Minister Silvi Kirilov responded and accepted the resignation. Asked by Trud whether there is any reason to doubt the technical parameters set out in the construction tender, Board Chair Prof. Ivan Litvinenko said: “We cannot doubt them without having seen them. We participated in their preparation and discussion with the IDOM consulting consortium. They did the actual assignment and research, but we do not know what is in the tender. We will see the assignment after the fact, when everyone else sees it. So, what is our role?” Answering whether the national children's hospital will be a commercial company, Litvinenko said: “It is not clear. There are other things that need to be decided and are of utmost importance, but we do not have answers about them either. It is very important how the hospital will be subsidized because it is a huge structure, and you know what paediatric care costs. It is also essential for it to be a university hospital so that teaching can begin from day one. It would have been appropriate for the legal department at the ministry to have some idea, to have done some work, but nothing has been done, or we have not been told, if it has.”

POLITICS/EDUCATION

Dnevnik.bg runs an analysis titled: The foundations of democracy are crumbling: the civil sector on attempts to isolate it from schools. Vazrazhdane MP Angel Yanchev proposed legal changes that would ban NGOs, receiving over 50% of their funding from abroad, from working in Bulgarian schools with students and teachers. Civil society organizations warn this would isolate schools, limit education projects, and violate the right to association. Critics, Lyuba Yordanova from the Rise Foundation, Nadya Shabani from Together in Class, and Plamena Nikolova from the Bulgarian Centre for Not-for-Profit Law, call the proposal unclear and dangerous, noting it could even block EU-funded or Erasmus programmes. They see it as part of a broader attack on democracy and civic freedoms in Bulgaria. If adopted, NGOs that provide training, civic education, and social support in schools would be barred from cooperation, harming students and teachers. A petition opposing the proposal quickly collected over 1,400 signatures. UNICEF Bulgaria clarified that the change would not affect its work, as it operates under international agreements.

CRIME

All online media outlets, radio and TV report on the news that six migrants died after the car transporting them overturned on the shore of Lake Vaya, in the city of Burgas, on the Black Sea. Bulgarian National Radio reported on Thursday night that before the accident, the car had been pursued for a long time by border police between the summer resort of Kiten and Burgas. The driver of the car carrying the migrants, a Romanian citizen, survived and was detained for questioning. Three other migrants were injured and taken to the regional hospital. During the chase in the city, the car carrying the migrants overturned and fell into the lake. On Friday morning, the Director of the General Directorate Border Police, Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov, said that the police tried to stop the car carrying the migrants with spikes, when it overturned.

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Telegraf daily’s front page article is on intimate partner violence, which is one of the most common forms of violence against women. In September, according to the Interior Ministry 320 women became victims of domestic violence. The profile of the aggressor: a male over 40, who beats hard and does not comply with a restraining order, Chief Inspector Zornitsa Shumanova, head of the domestic violence unit at the National Police General Directorate confirmed. The biggest number of cases have been registered in Sofia, Burgas, Plovdiv and Varna. Telegraf’s article reads that murders, kidnappings and the use of force in domestic violence cases are isolated cases, but the first resounds strongly in society. In the last such case, a 55-year-old man shot a woman in a shop in Sofia and then committed suicide. The killer and the victim had previously lived together as a couple. The newspaper recalls that in 2022, the Supreme Court of Cassation handed down a final sentence of 30 years in prison for Viktor Aleksandrov, who was on trial for the double murder of his girlfriend Darina Ministerska and their daughter Nikol.

FOOD/HEALTH

24 Chasa’s front page article is on a large-scale study of 40,000 products which shows that bread in Bulgaria has the least amount of salt compared to bread in Europe, and milk in Bulgaria has the least amount of sugar, but Bulgarian sausages contain more sodium and fat. Prof. Veselka Duleva, Head of Food and Nutrition, National Centre for Public Health and Analyses, presented data and key findings from a study, conducted using a standardized and unified methodology in European Union countries as part of the joint Best-ReMaP initiative. The study examined the nutritional information on the labels of food and beverages available on the market. The results place Bulgaria in the middle compared to the other countries participating in the study, in terms of efforts to improve the composition of foods in order to reduce the content of saturated and trans fats, sugars, and salt.