site.btaMedia Review: November 19

After the parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance and three more committees adopted the 2026 State Budget Bill on first reading on Tuesday, the news media provide analyses and commentaries by the opposition, employers and trade unions.

Mediapool.bg sums up the employers' views. Employers proposed a far smaller rise in public-sector pay, but the government coalition, backed by MRF-New Beginning, signalled it will not retreat from its plans in the upcoming debates. Business groups outlined measures that could save the budget substantial sums, rather than relying solely on a 2-percentage-point increase in social-insurance contributions and doubling the dividend tax from 5% to 10%. Rumen Radev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), said limiting next year's public-sector pay rise to no more than 5% would free up EUR 455 million. Dobri Mitrev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA), argued that the proposed 2026 budget "punishes" 2.1 million workers and companies that declare their income openly and pay their dues. Boyan Nikolaev, Deputy Executive Director of the Confederation of the Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG), called the draft "strongly pro-inflationary". Tsvetan Simeonov, President of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said rising labour costs remain the main problem for businesses both in Europe and at home, criticizing the planned 2-point rise in social security contributions.

Segabg.com reports that the Finance Minister described the 2-point increase in social security contributions as "bearable' for both employers and employees. "Higher contributions count as higher deductible expenses for employers, while workers will pay less income tax," Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said. During the debate in the Budget and Finance Committee, GERB MPs did not take the floor. Jordan Tzonev MP of MRF-New Beginning was the first to speak, saying his party "likes the budget very much" because it supports rapid income convergence with the rest of the EU.

Interviewed by Bulgarian National Television (BNT), Venko Sabrutev, MP of Continue the Change- Democratic Bulgaria and member of the Budget and Finance Committee, said: "The state spends billions on corruption but only a few eurocents on the elderly. It is unacceptable that salaries rise by barely 1% in the National Library, while in the Supreme Judicial Council salaries will increase by BGN 6,000 per month, because BGN 24,000 per month now is insufficient." Sabrutev was commenting on potential Christmas bonuses for pensioners and some of the salary increases proposed in the 2026 budget. Salaries in the Interior Ministry rose by 50% just a few months ago, and now a further 11% increase has been proposed. In the judiciary, salaries are set to rise by 26%. "You cannot have a monthly salary of BGN 15-20,000 and still demand a 26% increase," he said.

On Tuesday, the parliamentary Labour and Social Policy Committee gave the Social Policy Minister until December 20 to propose legislative amendments establishing Christmas and Easter support for the most vulnerable groups, including pensioners, single parents, large families and socially disadvantaged individuals living alone. Earlier in November, Committee Chair Denitsa Sacheva said that Christmas supplements for pensioners were not planned this year.

Duma frontpages the Left's call for Christmas supplements for pensioners and covers the deadline for proposals given to Social Policy Minister Borislav Gutsanov, a Socialist Party member.

On BNT and the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), BICA Executive Director Dobrin Ivanov reiterated his criticism that the government did not allow enough time for public consultation and for building consensus on the policies, measures and reforms in the 2026 Budget Bill. He said the 2-point increase in social security contributions can only cover the update pensions in the second half of 2026. He also objects to the planned increases in dividend tax and the maximum contributory income, and to introducing a mandatory retail management software. He argued that scrapping these four measures would cost EUR 1.2 billion - 0.9% of GDP and about 2% of revenues - and suggested possible sources for compensating these funds. Business leaders also insist that the minimum wage be delinked from the average wage.

Assoc. Prof. Valeri Apostolov, Secretary of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour, told BNT that the trade unions' views differ from those of employers. Regarding comments that low labour productivity alone keeps wages down, he said this is only half of the story. Productivity depends mostly on technology, investment, organization and management, not on employees, whose influence is largely limited to skills and education; everything else is beyond their control.

On BNR, Atanas Katsarchev, Chief Economist of the Podkrepa trade union, commented that real income growth in 2026 will be negative, given that inflation is currently at 5.3% and the proposed increase in public sector wages is 5%.

In a discussion on Nova TV, economist Nikola Filipov identified effective debt management as the key issue: "Debt does not always mean poverty. The point is to manage it efficiently." He criticized the lack of reforms in the new budget. "I see nothing different from the past five years: the minimum wage and the minimum and maximum contributory incomes are higher. This directly hits businesses and makes workers poorer," he said. Filipov called for structural reforms to restrict a deficit build-up. Bulgaria missed the chance to build buffers during the years of economic growth, and instead of surpluses, deficits became the norm, which are always financed through debt. In the same discussion, BICA Board Deputy Chair Kiril Boshov warned that the planned increase in social security contributions and the dividend tax will cost "EUR 1 billion, taken from businesses and our employees as early as next year". BIA Vice President Stanislav Popdonchev said the State faces a systemic problem: expenditures are growing exponentially, while revenues cannot keep pace, which will either result in massive deficits, or taxes will have to be raised. The three experts concurred that left unchanged, the 2026 budget will aggravate fiscal risks and will place a heavier burden on both businesses and individuals.

Capital.bg publishes political analyst Daniel Smilov's commentary for Deutsche Welle. He argues that ever-increasing expenditures have pushed budgetary redistribution from under 40% under finance minister Assen Vassilev in 2023-2024 to almost 46% in 2026. The extra spending is not explained solely by higher wages and pensions, though funding for security services and the Interior Ministry has nearly doubled. GERB and MRF-New Beginning have allocated billions for investment programmes and municipal projects, much of which effectively funds the political clientele. Those interested in the corporate side of this clientelism need only look at the list of recipients of loans from the Bulgarian Development Bank, generously funded by the state budget, says Smilov.

***

The dailies report that Transport Minister Grozdan Karadjov has ordered the government's Falcon aircraft to be sold at a public auction. An analysis of its maintenance and operating costs over the past decade shows it costs an average of BGN 4.4 million per year for approximately 290 hours of use.

***

bTV interviewed Atanas Dimitrov, Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association, who commented on a recent increase in parking fees in Sofia's blue and green zones and their expansion. He said the hospitality industry is already under pressure from the return to 20% VAT (up from 9% introduced as a COVID-related measure), and the proposed higher social security contributions and dividend tax. He warned that the combination of higher parking fees and time limits will inevitably reduce traffic to restaurants and hotels, further threatening businesses already struggling with declining consumer demand.

Duma reports that four protests will be organized against the new rules for blue and green zone parking in Sofia.

POLITICS

Trud has a commentary by Viktoria Georgieva headlined "New Project or Empty Rhetoric?" which looks at President Rumen Radev's potential to come up with a new political project, which has been circulating in public conversation in recent years. To claim credit for an alternative, one must offer something genuinely new, untied to past governments, politicians or the system one keeps criticizing, the journalist says. This cannot be a person who has helped set the agenda from within that same system. In the eight years since Radev first took office in 2017, his record hardly supports such a claim: institutional tensions have grown sharper and social divisions deeper. The key word around which many of his statements in recent years revolve is "alternative": an alternative to the "oligarchic model", the "status quo", the "corrupt political elite". This is classic anti-system rhetoric - a call for a new model of governance, honesty, order and the rule of law. "But how can someone who appointed two caretaker governments, composed of individuals who later founded Continue the Change (Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev), thereby legitimizing them (…), claim to offer an alternative? The absence of a concrete programme, coupled with constant opposition to parties and politicians, points less to specific solutions or a new political direction and more to yet another potential personal project designed to capitalize politically, trading influence without delivering genuine change," Georgieva says.

***

Trud quotes Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov as saying on Facebook that he was dismayed by MPs from MRF-New Beginning planning to donate their December salaries as Christmas bonuses for pensioners. He called this "incredible hypocrisy", saying that "their government" has cut funds for pensioners, yet they intend to give away their own salaries as compensation, which, in his words, would amount to BGN 0.05 per pensioner.

MRF-New Beginning is not part of the government but supports it in Parliament where the three ruling parties do not hold a majority on their own.

SOCIETY

24 Chasa leads with a story headlined "Illegal Waste Worth EUR 10 billion: Europe's Dirty Secret, Bulgaria Is Involved". According to Interpol, this is the third most profitable activity for organized crime after drugs and counterfeits. Bulgaria is no longer just a final destination, but also a hub for redistribution in trafficking schemes. A joint investigation by 24 Chasa and journalists from Germany, North Macedonia, Serbia and Italy has exposed a web of administrative chaos, legal loopholes and corruption that facilitates this illegal trafficking. Authorities in Slovenia report that they keep stopping trucks with forged documents headed for Bulgaria and Serbia.

***

Trud publishes a survey conducted by the Myara polling agency, which found that nearly four out of five Bulgarians believe the transition to real democracy has not been completed - a view shared to the largest extent by the oldest demographic. About 60% believe there is no real market economy, while the opposite view is shared by 35%. While 60.2% say the communist era secret services are still running the country, 22% hold the opposite view. The survey was financed by the agency and involved 807 respondents aged 18 or over between November 12 and 17.

***

24 Chasa has an analysis by Sima Vladimirova on Bulgarians' trust in psychics. She says there are no exact figures on how many millions flow into the hands of psychics and fortune-tellers as their fees are unregulated and they are officially outside the tax system, unlike in Romania. A recent Trend Research Center survey commissioned by 24 Chasa found high levels of trust in such practitioners: 58% of Bulgarians believe in their supernatural abilities and 38% (over 2 million people) have visited a psychic or clairvoyant. Social psychologist Milena Stateva told the daily that the real issue is that experts lack basic communication skills to make people feel understood and reassured. When conventional medicine cannot offer solutions to a patient, psychics at least provide comfort. Doctors are not trained to act as psychologists, which partly explains why many people do not trust them, according to Stateva.

***

The October summary of Bulgaria's Risk Assessment Centre on Food Chain cites 528 validated notifications sent by the EU Member States to the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), Trud reports. The notifications in September were 434. In October, Bulgaria was mentioned in an alert notification by Germany for cadmium and pyrrolizidine alkaloids in organic eyebright herb.

***

Nova TV reported that children, teachers and parents in the southwestern town of Kyustendil are joining forces against aggression to protect children from dangerous situations, such as a new trend in which young people create a "menu" of violent acts that a buyer can choose and target at someone.