site.btaMedia Review: March 12

HEADLINES 

The main topics discussed in the morning programmes of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), bTV, and Nova TV on Tuesday included the consultations between parliamentary parties and the President on government formation, as well as the negotiations between the until now power-sharing Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and GERB-UDF, and recent criminal incidents with foreigners in the capital, which resulted in a protest against migrants and increased police presence in the city centre and several other districts. 

Consultations on government formation were a frontpage topic in Trud, and covered on the inside pages of 24 Chasa, Duma and Telegraph. 

24 Chasa has a frontpage headline reading that “police have kicked out [from Sofia city centre] the junkies and the thieves, but migrants are not dangerous”. Sofia municipal councillor from VMRO Carlos Contrera was interviewed by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) on the topic of refugees and migrants in the capital. Dnevnik.bg has an analysis titled “Migrants for Political Use: How Three Incidents Became a "Systemic Security Problem".

POLITICS 

The frontpage of Trud reads that in case the rotation of prime ministers between GERB-UDF and CC-DB fails, the third government-forming mandate will go to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). The daily highlights that the weekend negotiations between CC-DB and GERB-UDF had no results. 

24 Chasa writes that CC-DB and GERB-UDF have opened a “new file” on policies, the government line-up is left to the decisions of outgoing Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and his outgoing Deputy and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel. 

Telegraph writes that consultations will continue until the end of the week when the first government forming mandate will potentially be given. 

Duma highlights that CC-DB and GERB-UDF need more time for negotiations and quote Denkov saying that snap elections will follow in case the rotation fails to happen. 

HOME AFFAIRS 

Following two recent incidents with foreigners in the capital and one incident from a migrant centre here from last week, widely covered by the media, police presence in Sofia was increased and outgoing Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov met with Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev and representatives of restaurant branch organizations here on Monday to discuss security in the capital.

Dnevnik.bg has an analysis titled “Migrants for Political Use: How Three Incidents Became a "Systemic Security Problem". The author writes: “Three incidents with clashes involving foreigners in the last few days have led to attempts to stir up tensions against migrants. Those lurk behind the initial distorted or inaccurate information (experts even described some of the first reports as fake news), the swift use of the incidents for various political purposes, including organizing a protest, the involvement of restaurant owners with urgent demands, the action with the detention of 100 people (among whom the number of Bulgarians vs. foreigners remains unknown), the bill prepared by GERB and MRF to increase the number of police officers at the border and to guard the refugee centres contributed to this. [...] The use of the three cases - despite all official statements that there are no ethnic reasons in any of them - is likely to be continued by the nationalist formations in view of the upcoming election campaign for the European elections."

Sofia municipal councillor from VMRO Carlos Contrera told BNR that: "The only refugees in Bulgaria at the moment are those from Ukraine - these are people who have crossed the border with their documents and have been accommodated in Bulgaria. All the others are illegal migrants, because 100% of them have crossed the border illegally and have been brought into the country either by smugglers or by the carelessness of the Interior Ministry.” According to him, refugee centres should be gated, the gendarmerie should be sent to monitor them, the ones in Sofia should be moved out of the settlements and taken somewhere near the border with Turkiye. 

24 Chasa’s story headline on the inside pages reads that “the police in the Arabian neighbourhood [part of the Sofia city centre] has become more than the refugees there, the Interior Ministry denies a spike in criminal activity”.

* * * 

BNR, BNT, and bTV cover a story on the election of Sliven Metropolitan. A protest and a counter protest were organized in front of the Holy Synod in Sofia over changes in the rules for the elections of Metropolitans. Prof. Ivan Zhelev told BNR that: "Those who influence politicians also influence the church leadership. The Church remains the largest owner of real estate in Bulgaria. This is no small motivation." Telegraph also has an article on the topic, saying that outgoing Justice Minister Atanas Slavov has expressed a position on the case, which was not in favour of the decision of the Holy Synod. 

* * * 

The main headline on the frontpage of Duma reads that “only one third [of Bulgarians] are ready to fight for the Homeland”. Duma references an international survey by Gallup International, according to which, some 42% of Bulgarians would not fight to protect their country. The story is also on the first pages of Telegraph. 

JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Mediapool.bg has an article referencing a Monday press release from the Inspectorate of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the institution meant to monitor irregularities in the judicial system, which says that the Inspectorate was not aware of the existence of Martin “The Notary” Bozhanov and his SS Club before the media publications after his murder on January 31, 2024. Mediapool quotes the inspectorate saying that “no reports have been submitted to the Inspectorate about any influence exerted over magistrates in connection with the existence of the so-called ‘SS Club’ run by Bozhanov”. It was only after Bozhanov’s murder that the Inspectorate asked acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov for a list of names of magistrates who had membership cards for Bozhanov’s “SS Club”. 

The inaction on "The Notary" issue is obvious, Mediapool writes. Both the Inspectorate and a number of other institutions had the opportunity to check but did not. Bozhanov was highlighted as a lobbyist in the judiciary as early as 2021 in an investigation by the organisation Anti-Corruption Fund, but there was no reaction after it. The article says that Bozhanov’s influence was particularly strong in the specialised court and prosecution, near which his private club was located. These institutions had been functioning for over 10 years and from the very beginning there were doubts in the way they worked. 

Bozhanov was shot dead in a gated complex in a Sofia suburb on the evening of January 31. According to media reports, he was a large-scale fixer of people's problems with the judiciary. He has been implicated in building a network of connections with prosecutors and judges whom he allegedly bribed, threatened, blackmailed or otherwise pressured to treat his "clients" favourably. Pretrial proceedings have been initiated. An ad hoc parliamentary committee of inquiry has been set up to probe the facts and circumstances surrounding the activity of Bozhanov and his group.

* * * 

Mediapool.bg writes that the Military-Appelate Court overturned the termination of the investigation into the death of pilot Lt. Col. Valentin Terziev because it was "unjustified and premature." Terziev’s MiG-29 jet fighter lost radio contact and disappeared from the radar screens at 00:45 hrs local time on June 9, 2021 while performing a training mission over Bulgarian territorial waters in the Black Sea during the Shabla 2021 Field Firing Exercise. Col. Terziev died in the crash. In November 2022, an Armed Forces colonel was charged with inadvertently causing the pilot's death and material damage worth BGN 9 million. The Military Prosecution Office closed the investigation in September 2023.

ECONOMY

The leading analysis in Telegraph is on the prices of household renovation. The daily writes that the painting of the walls in a 40 square metre apartment would cost the equivalent of two booked holidays in Tunisia. 

* * *

24 Chasa writes that 56 medicinal drugs bought by 600,000 people become free from April 1. The drugs are for home treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The daily writes that most of them are not very expensive but the share of medicines covered by the National Health Insurance Fund used to be very low.

* * *

In an interview for Trud, Plamen Pavlov, the head of the Bulgarian Gas Association, says that Bulgaria buys electricity from thermoelectric power plants in Serbia, and because of the European Union the Bulgarian coal powered plants are at a loss.