site.btaMedia Review: May 23

POLITICS

"CC might as well be renamed to “Continue the Change with GERB”. This is a betrayal to the people of the protests. It is also a betrayal to the voters. The people voted for CC to get rid of GERB. To have justice. Obviously, that's not going to happen when the two are in coalition. We have yet to see what the agreements are," said Maya Manolova of The Left coalition on BNT’s morning show. 

According to her, Borissov has got an insurance policy that he will not be investigated.

"There will be the collapse of the political system in this form. No one will trust either GERB or CC-DB anymore. I think thousands of people, like me, feel this betrayal as a personal failure. The most dishonourable thing is that they made their deal in the dark."

**

The European Commission has played effectively in two directions - to convince (CC leaders) Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev to accept the former commissioner (Mariya Gabriel) as deputy prime minister, and Boyko Borissov not to push for his own ministers, 24 Chasa writes.

Expectations that squabbles over ministerial seats would cloud the newly emerging understanding between GERB and CC for a rotating government will almost certainly be deceived.

According to 24 Chasa sources in Brussels and Sofia, the model of government is already clear. The only person GERB will rely on in the cabinet will be Mariya Gabriel. All other ministers will be from CC, but probably not from DB.

**

The roots of the problems are deeper. It is right to talk about political influence on the judiciary. The point is that politicians are using its services. What was not foreseen is that the Prosecutor General went off script. Prosecutors are breaking free from the control of their mentors and becoming inconvenient, said constitutional judge Prof. Yanaki Stoilov on BNT. According to him, some of the questions precisely about interventions in the judiciary are not considered by Parliament because it is inconvenient. "That's where the process has to develop. It is also important whether the perpetrators and the instigators of the bombing against Geshev will be identified."

**

According to sociologist and political analyst Andrey Raychev, the important question is why GERB leader Boyko Borissov agrees to the rotational government plan and why CC-DB want it. Borissov came out of isolation because the one (CC co-leader Kiril Petkov) who arrested him is now telling him come let's make a government. CC's goal was power - the wrong goal because they don't have the conditions for it, Raychev pointed out on bTV. According to him, after the ninth month there may be no rotation and Borissov may demand new early parliamentary elections. The main consequence is that CC will be subjected to monstrous internal tensions and Vazrazhdane will also benefit. CC-DB will foot the bill for a cabinet with a rotating prime minister, Raychev said.

**

“This is a coalition government. The principle of rotation is insane to me, and I hope they will abandon it. GERB has Rosen Zhelyazkov at the head of Parliament and if Denkov remains at the head of the government, the situation will return to normal,” political analyst Maraya Tsvetkova said on BNT.

"We still have to say 'bravo' to them for agreeing to do their job and make some kind of government. Borissov's thick skin did the job, Hristo Ivanov's foolish patience did the job, Petkov's childish enthusiasm also did the job, Assen Vassilev's calculations also did the job. And this happened thanks to the academicism and Brussels manners of Denkov and Mariya Gabriel."

ECONOMY

"Inflation from January 2021 to April 2023 is 28-29%. If during this time a working Bulgarian has not received a similar salary increase, they should ask for it. Some of the serious businesses already compensated for inflation and increased their employees' salaries, in some cases even over the inflation rate," said President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) Plamen Dimitrov businessnovinite.bg.

Regarding the adoption of the euro, Dimitrov is adamant that Bulgarians' negativity towards the new currency is due to the lack of sufficient correct information. "We see clearly what is happening with the other countries that adopted the euro recently. Let's look at Lithuania and Estonia, because they were also in a currency board like us. What happened there: in a few years wages doubled while prices rose only slightly," he said.

**

Duma writes that more than 2,200 employees of the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) across the country will hold a one-hour warning strike on May 25. They are demanding a 30% wage increase to take effect retroactively from January 1.  According to the calculations of the Syndicate of Administrative Employees of the Podkrepa Labour Confederation, BGN 30 million is needed, which is about 0.14% of the budget of the NSSI. Since the beginning of the year, the trade union has repeatedly sounded the alarm about tensions among NSSI employees due to the lack of wage increases in the system. In recent months there have been repeated meetings with the NSSI management without success. "It is obvious that government and politicians of all colours do not know or appreciate the work and responsibilities of those employed there," the trade union comments, reminding that the NSSI took over the payment of pension supplements instead of paying them as social assistance. Subsequently, all pensions granted in the country had to be urgently recalculated. "NSSI employees are professionals who cannot be easily replaced because they have very specific knowledge of the pension system and should be properly remunerated for the responsibilities they carry," the union said.

** 

BNR reports that the Ministry of Economy will present to the European Defence Fund (EDF) the opportunities and conditions for financing Bulgarian defence industry companies. The forum will be opened by Minister Nikola Stoyanov.

EDF representatives will present the opportunities for Bulgarian enterprises to apply for funding under the programme and the conditions of the Fund. Representatives of the European Commission, businesses, research and industry organisations, academia and universities will also participate in the national information day.  

The European Defence Fund is the European Commission's financial instrument to promote cooperation between EU defence companies, universities and research institutes to increase the capacity of the defence industry. For 2023, the fund has a budget of almost EUR 1.2 billion, of which EUR 72 million is earmarked for projects by small and medium-sized enterprises, while another EUR 41 million will finance developments for so-called disruptive technologies.

HOME SCENE

Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev was not recorded with special surveillance means, but rather by one of the prosecutors, and this is reprehensible behaviour, said on bTV Gen. Dimo Gyaurov, former director of the National Intelligence Service and member of two parliaments. "The constitution and the laws of the state do not allow anyone to be recorded unless they are related to legal proceedings. It is becoming clear that we not only have a captured state, but also a captured prosecutor's office, and Geshev is part of that," he said. According to him, the recording is a warning to people who have been pulling the strings in the state so far that their end will come. However, Gyaurov is not convinced that will be the case.

**

According to Duma, the average life expectancy of Bulgarians is decreasing. The projected average life expectancy for the total population of the country, calculated for the period 2020-2022, is 71.9 years. Compared to the previous period it decreases by 1.7 years, the National Statistical Institute said.

It is worth noting that men live much shorter than women. The average life expectancy for men is 68.3 years, while for women it is 7.5 years higher, or 75.8 years. Moreover, men live less now than they did 10 years ago. In this period, their average life expectancy decreased by 2.3 years, while for women it decreased by 1.8 years. In the cities, men live longer than in the villages, and the difference is significant - three years in favour of the urban population. This is also because older people live in the villages. Life expectancy ranges from 69.4 years in Vidin to 74.8 years in Sofia, and it is above the national average in fourteen districts.