site.btaMedia Review: July 25

Three topics dominate Tuesday’s media heavily – constitutional reform, educational reform and discussions around the national holiday.

POLITICS

24 Chassa, Telegraph, Duma, Mediapool, bTV and NOVA all have articles on the discussions about constitutional reforms.

24 Chassa writes that a speedy redesign of the Bulgarian Constitution might “break” or “glue” the State. The article points out that the lack of specifics on what the constitutional reform would comprise of is indicative of the government’s desire to prolong its own life, while isolating President Rumen Radev from the power levers of a new caretaker cabinet. The article also reads that Tuesday is a day filled with numerous political expectations due to the fact that it is the first time the constitutional committee is sitting down, hence why Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) made their proposal for constitutional change early. 24 Chassa stressed that the other two supporters of constitutional change - GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedom (MRF) remain silent on these matters, without putting forward any concrete ideas of constitutional reform. President Radev’s position is similar.

Duma writes that the position of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is to abstain from any talks on constitutional reform. The article quotes BSP leader Korneliya Ninova, who states that the idea of changing the basic state law has been compromised and the discussion around the national holiday diverts society’s attention, which is necessary for the ruling parties to “wrap-up” power redistribution among themselves. In Ninova’s words, “this majority has no legitimacy for profound change of the supreme law, and some of the proposals are a demonstration of legal illiteracy”. She says that BSP has received an invitation from CC-DB co-leaders Hristo Ivanov and Kiril Petkov for discussions on constitutional change. Ninova called for “meaningful conversations” that could lead to a fairer, just, democratic country.

bTV writes that among the ideas to be discussed by the Constitutional Committee are new rules for the caretaker government, limiting the mandate of mayors of municipalities, plans to split the judicial council, as well as the possibility for citizens to file an individual constitutional complaint. 24 Chassa gives the opinion of former constitutional judge Blagovest Punev on the last idea. He states that not everyone should complain to the Constitutional Court, because that would overwhelm it without much sense. Mediapool points out that, for a brief period while the Constitutional Committee was not sitting, MRF MP Delyan Peevski, who is sanctioned under the global Magnitsky Act for corruption, was its member. His inclusion in the commission caused tension and criticism from CC-DB. Nearly three weeks after his inclusion in the committee, Peevski announced that he was giving up the post "for the sake of Bulgaria and the constitution, because changes are urgent”.

The Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) and Mediapool quote Prof. Ekaterina Mihaylova on the constitutional reforms. She stresses on the risk that “all the energy around the constitutional changes will focus on the issue of the national holiday”. Mihaylova says that CC-DB shifted the discussion from the reform itself to the topic of the national holiday. In this context, Duma features the opinion of historian Prof. Iskra Baeva that CC-DB’s idea to make May 24 (Day of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, of the Bulgarian Alphabet, Education and Culture and of Slav Letters) should be declared national holiday, replacing March 3 (National Day of Bulgaria, or Liberation Day) politicizes the former. Baeva differentiates the two dates, stating that May 24 is a people’s holiday, while March 3 is a national, thus political one.

Telegraph quotes Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov on the discussions about the national holiday. He rendered the arguments against May 24 being declared national holiday as “unsubstantiated”. 24 Chassa quotes historians Plamen Pavlov and Ivan Ilchev. Pavlov is in support of the idea to declare May 24 national holiday, which, in his words is ”the Bulgarian day in World Civilization”, while Ilchev says that the proposal is made by “historically illiterate people”, who follow certain political conjucture. “Nobody denies May 24, but to deny March 3 its right as a national holiday is shameful”, Ilchev says.

In the morning talk show of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) CC-DB MP Vasil Pandov said that he was aware of the position of BSP, but not of There Is Such A People (TISP) or of Vazrazhdane. “We have no regrets and, in the future, both holidays will be respected as they are now”, Pandov said, adding that March 3 will be an official holiday, the issue is to declare the Bulgarian national identity at the level of the Constitution, to have clearly outlined symbols. “We want May 24 to be a national holiday and March 3 to remain an official holiday," Pandov stressed.

Trud gives several opinions on the discussions around the national holiday. Historian Andrey Pantev sees May 24 as a more cosmopolitan holiday and is against the attempts to put it in strictly national frameworks. Historian Trendafil Mitev points out that the importance of March 3 derives from the fact that it delineated the borders of San-Stefano Bulgaria and served as a message of the still unfulfilled national unification of the Bulgarian lands. Mitev clarifies that May 24 is a more spiritual holiday, marking the fact that the third alphabet and literary civilization in Europe was created in the First Bulgarian Empire. Prof. Boyan Biolchev states that the idea of May 24 as a national holiday is his. Historian Milko Palangurski expresses support for making September 22 the national holiday, as the day when Bulgaria declared its independence in 1908.

ECONOMICS

Trud, 24 Chassa, Telegraph and Duma quote BTA’s interview with the recently re-elected governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Dimitar Radev. The main highlight that the abovementioned media are putting emphasis on is the idea of the BNB Board to reproduce the design of the Bulgarian coins currently in circulation, which will ensure continuity in the currency used and facilitate the recognition of the new currency by the Bulgarian citizens. Radev says that the images to be put in the future Bulgarian euro coins will be of St. Ivan of Rila on the 1 euro coin and of Paisius of Hilendar on the 2 euro coin. “The national side of the Bulgarian euro coins will have a Cyrillic inscription of the word "Bulgaria", as well as the word "euro" (for the coins of 1 and 2 euro) and "cent", respectively "stotinki" (for the coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 euro cents)”, Radev stressed, adding that on the edge of the largest euro coin, of 2 euro, will be the Cyrillic text "GOD SAVE BULGARIA", which is in line with the historical Bulgarian coinage traditions.

EDUCATION

Duma, Trud and 24 Chassa report on the impasse between the Ministry of Education and Bulgarian teachers on the draft amendment in the regulation, according to which, in order to gain new knowledge and improve practically relevant skills, the teacher may leave one to three assignments for students to complete independently in writing outside of class. The number of assignments is determined by the lesson objectives and the age of the pupils. According to the scope of the assignment, it may be for the whole class, for a single group or for an individual pupil. Teachers believe that such an amendment would eventually make the learning process inefficient.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Trud features an article by journalist Kostadin Filipov on the future constitutional amendments in the Republic of North Macedonia, which would add more "parts of peoples" in the preamble of the Constitution, including Bulgarians. Filipov writes that if the North Macedonian government decides on new elections, instead of constitutional amendment, the elections would be won by the opposing VMRO-DPMNE party, which would have to deal with the same matters currently at hand. Filipov speculates that a victory for VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski would present to him an opportunity to make himself look pro-EU.