site.btaMedia Review: May 25

The topics of a possible government of GERB-UDF and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and of the ongoing scandals in the Judiciary dominate Thursday’s news media.

POLITICS

Trud has an interview with political expert Daria-Lora Dacheva, who comments on the idea of GERB-UDF and CC-DB to form a rotational government as well as on the clash between GERB leader Boyko Borissov and Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev. According to her, the idea of a regular government on a rotational basis [with Mariya Gabriel of GERB and Nikolay Denkov of Continue the Change switching places as prime minister in nine months] is the consequence of an equal compromise on both sides but will lead to different results for each; it will surely give rise to tension bigger than the one felt thus far, because both coalitions will feel the pressure of their voters. After three years of a political crisis, it is normal for the biggest enemies to unite for one single purpose: normalization on the political scene, the expert tells the daily. She does not expect such a government to last more than 18 months. She also says that GERB focusing on Geshev in an attempt to turn him into a sacrificial lamb in the name of a government, was a mistake, because before, the party told the public several times that the problem lies in the judicial system, not the person who is prosecutor general. Also, many people who support GERB-UDF also support Geshev, and such an unexpected action on the political formation’s part would surely be interpreted as a betrayal.  

24 Chasa has an interview with media and PR expert Jimmy Naydenov, who comments that the rotational government will last longer than the planned 18 months, because this is what can get the country out of the blind alley, there is no way out other than through a coalition and understanding. This is a coalition like the one proposed by John Snow, a character in the novel “Game of Thrones”: a coalition between enemies who believed it impossible to talk to each other but who united against the bigger threat, which in this case is a war raging nearby and ruin in terms of economy and governance. Given the long-standing hatred and non-acceptance between the two formations, he expects them to try to outsmart each other within the government. Gabriel, being new to the Bulgarian political scene, will have to serve as a bridge towards understanding between GERB-UDF and CC-DB. According to Naydenov, the scandal with the Prosecutor General was probably caused on purpose and it has a negative impact on the formation of a regular government.  

Trud’s front-page article reads that the marriage between GERB and CC-DB consummated in secret has led to hysterics among civil servants in ministries, agencies, and commissions, among mayors and heads of local units, representatives of the middle echelon in the two political formations told the daily. Meetings and phone calls are held until late in the evening, and frustrated activists of GERB and CС-DB kicked up rows to MPs and party coordinators over the agreement on a rotational government of Denkov and Gabriel. On Facebook, the union is called D&G [Dolce&Gabanna]. “It is crazy! There is no day, there is no night, there is no holiday,” members of GERB and CC-DB told the daily. Mayors of GERB wanted to know if there is a guarantee that Continue the Change co-leader Assen Vassilev, once finance minister, will not start to purposefully make revisions through the control bodies. Businessmen waiting for resources under EU projects were warned a month ago that through the Finance Ministry they would be forced to correct their political orientation for the local elections and help Continue the Change. MPs of Continue the Change were already telling public councilors that not only will the ministers be theirs, but there will also be a change of school principals and “many regional structures”.

Dnevnik.bg has an analysis titled, “Government on Rotational Basis: Inevitable Compromise or Marriage of Convenience”. The article presents opinions on the matter given my experts on Bulgarian National Radio, Deutsche Welle, and Facebook. Following are some of them. According to Prof Evgenii Dainov, political expert and lecturer at New Bulgarian University, it is GERB, and not CC-DB, that is in a weaker position and begging for a joint government. Assoc Prof Boris Popivanov, political expert, argues that what GERB and CC-DB are doing is an operation for mutual limiting of the damage: CC-DB is losing supporters in every elections, so it needs to be in power again, while GERB is looking for a way to exit its political isolation since 2020. Political observer Evgeniy Kanev argues that the media and forums are on fire with claims that a rotational government is an extravagant idea, but it’s actually a normal practice in democracies since its introduction for the first time in Israel in 1984, though not always a successful practice. Prof Ivaylo Dichev, lecturer at Sofia University, believes the proposed rotational government is an undisputed success for CC-DB. Economist Kouzman Iliev calls the GERB-CC-DB coalition inevitable and a marriage of convenience in which there always are many dalliances and infidelities. 

On Nova TV’s morning show, three experts commented on whether GERB-UDF and CC-DB will manage to govern together. Former energy minister Miroslav Sevlievski called that a lemon coalition, because everyone participating has a lemon in their mouth, and that is how their entire term in office will be like. Whether it is sour in politicians’ mouths is of no importance to the people, who cares about the result, Sevlievski added. Political expert Svetoslav Malinov commented that when certain political actions stem from a serious need, they should neither be criticized nor praised; GERB-UDF and CC-DB simply did what needed to be done. From here onward, the question is how the coalition will function, what compromises will be made in adopting the 2023 state budget, and how the coalition will survive after the local elections in autumn, when GERB will surely loose positions. Financial expert Levon Hampartzoumian said that the union between GERB-UDF and CC-DB is one of the few opportunities to put a stop to the chain of caretaker governments.

On Bulgarian National Radio, journalist Ilhan Anday commented that were the Bulgarian democracy like the German or the Austrian one, Geshev and Borissov would have been removed together. That would be healthy both for GERB and for the Bulgarian democracy, he argues. In his words, until several days ago, there were talks that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) would have 4-5 ministers in the future regular government, GERB would have 15 ministers, There Is Such a People would have 2, and there would be parliamentary quorum; however, this scheme was mined by Prosecutor General Geshev. The MRF unwillingly withdrew its support from Geshev. In the last two years, regardless of the visible configurations in Parliament, there was always an invisible Geshev majority, which is now in pieces, Anday argued.

On bTV’s morning show, Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Korneliya Ninova said that the BSP would be an opposition to a rotational government of GERB-UDF and CC-DB. She called it a coalition devoid of principles that is the biggest political betrayal in Bulgaria of the last years. In her words, this is a coalition built on nothing but the desire for power and created to save GERB leader Boyko Borissov and several individuals from Continue the Change from responsibility being sought. In her words, the BSP has always been in favour of Prosecutor General Geshev resigning, but his removal is not a real judicial reform.

On Bulgarian National Television’s morning show, Borislav Goutsanov MP of BSP says that a coalition between GERB-UDF and CC-DB would lead to nothing good for the State. This is the biggest betrayal in the last 30 years, because CC-DB’s calls for getting the thugs out of Parliament have turned into calls to keep them in, and the huge public energy for change is headed towards non-existence. The BSP has held talks with GERB but not negotiations for a joint government, he stressed. His party’s priorities remain the 2023 state budget, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and the non-provision of arms to Ukraine.

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Capital.bg has an article written by former Supreme Court of Cassation head Lozan Panov, who argues that Parliament has passed on first reading several scandalous amendments to the Judicial System Act without public discussion, by including the draft changes in the concluding provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and packaging these as part of the mechanism for investigating the Prosecutor General. “It is even more scandalous that the Council of Ministers, which proposed the amendments, claims these are based on recommendations by the Venice Commission that do not actually exist,” Panov writes. One of the changes reduces the majority needed for electing the presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court. The Venice Commission actually recommends doubling the necessary majority for electing and removing the presidents; there is a recommendation for reducing the majority, but it concerns the Prosecutor General only, Panov argues. 

Bulgarian National Television’s morning show was dedicated to the scandals in the Judiciary. Tatyana Zhilova, head of the Union of Judges in Bulgaria, commented that judges and prosecutors should not be put in the same bag, because they have different legal status. Also, there is a huge difference between the functions and public tasks of the Prosecutor General and the presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court. The adoption on first reading of the mechanism for prosecuting the Prosecutor General was a first step in the right direction, but other issues remain neglected and underwater obstacles are being laid that will not place the judicial system on a sturdier basis: they would rather be preconditions for more scandals in the future, she argued.

On Nova TV’s morning show, Constitutional Court judge Yanaki Stoilov commented that the Judiciary’s weaknesses are chronic, and the political influence on the system is almost constant.  The Judiciary was constructed in such a way that many of the high-ranking people are forced to take the political reality into account. According to him, what is happening in the Supreme Judicial Council is the result of a changed political reality. In his words, the prosecution service is very effective when criminal proceedings needs to be launched, but it is ineffective when high-ranking political figures needs to be prosecuted.

ECONOMY

Segabg.com presents research of the Institute for Market Economics based on data for 2020 and 2021, according to which one in three municipal companies operated at a loss in 2021. Municipalities participate in the capital of over 580 companies and more than 260 enterprises created under the municipal property legislation; their total assets amount to over BGN 7 billion and their employees number more than 36,700.  The richest in terms of assets are Metropolitan EAD (BGN 2.9 billion in assets), which operates Sofia’s underground railway system, and Toplofikatsiya Sofia (just over BGN 2 billion in assets), the capital’s heating utility. However, Metropolitan EAD finished 2021 with a loss of BGN 4.8 million despite the increase of 20% in revenues compared to 2020. Last year, Toplofikatsiya Sofia achieved an impressive profit, BGN 304 million, but in 2020 it incurred a loss of BGN 67 million.

Duma reports that in a recommendation to the caretaker Energy Minister and the head of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, National Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva has requested an extraordinary check at Toplofikatsiya Sofia over the high central heating bills for April. In a letter to the media, Kovacheva notes that the bills are higher than those for December 2022 and January 2023, the coldest winter months in Bulgaria.

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Mediapool.bg writes that EUR 423 million out of the EUR 480 million of the grants Bulgaria will receive under the REPowerEU mechanism are envisaged to go to the two State-owned operators of  the gas and electricity transmission networks – Bulgartransgaz and Electricity System Operator (ESO) – should the European Commission approve the projects the Bulgarian caretaker government has informally submitted for coordination and should the new, regular government submit them officially. According to the e-zine’s information, ESO needs nearly EUR 220 million for a project to reconstruct power lines so as to increase the transmission capacity for new units producing electricity from renewable energy sources. Bulgartransgaz will use some EUR 203 million from REPowerEU to cover around 90% of the resources needed for several projects, the most expensive one (EUR 142 million) being that for increasing the capacity by 1 billion cubic metres of the existing connection with Greece’s gas network, Kulata-Sidirokastron.

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A story in Telegraf reads that this year, going on an all-inclusive holiday on the Bulgarian seaside before the end of June will cost by 40%  less.

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Telegraf has an interview with Road Safety Institute head Bogdan Milchev, who argues that the top reason for deadly road traffic accidents in Bulgaria lies in corruption. 

CULTURE

24 Chasa frontpages the news that Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov won the 2023 International Booker Prize for his novel Time Shelter at a ceremony in London on May 23.