site.btaMedia Review: March 14

CHURCH LEADER DIES

News outlets cover the death of Patriarch Neophyte, the Head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), which was announced on Wednesday night, and discuss its implications. Neophyte died at the age of 78 from a multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. He was taken to hospital in late November 2023 due to a pulmonary condition.

SegaBG.com says that Neophyte's body will lie in state at the St Marina Church in Sofia on Thursday.

According to MediaPool.bg, an extraordinary meeting of the Holy Synod of the BOC on Thursday is expected to elect an interim leader of the Sofia Metropolitan's Office, another post vacated by Neophyte, until a new regular leader is elected. Metropolitan Grigorii of Veliko Tarnovo, the doyen of the BOC, is taking over as interim BOC head, the website says. A regular BOC leader is to be elected within four months, by the middle of July. Nine out of 15 metropolitans meet the requirements for holding the office, the article goes.

The patriarch's personality and lifework were discussed on the morning talk show of BNT1, the main channel of Bulgarian National Television. Historian Hristo Matanov said: "What comes to mind is the serenity which he projected and passed on to the Church." According to journalist Nikolai Krastev, Neophyte led the BOC in a very complicated time which saw many crises and wars at a global and European level and instability in the Balkans. Krastev commented: "He tried to balance things off. He fell short of building the necessary consensus in the BOC on the matter of Macedonia in 2018, when a call was issued for the BOC to be recognized as a mother church, but that did not materialize. An opportunity was missed." 

POLITICS

Innovation, the environment, tourism and foreign affairs will be the minimum of ministerial portfolios to be allocated to the GERB party in Mariya Gabriel's rotating government, which is expected to be formed on GERB's mandate, 24 Chasa predicts. Gabriel will receive the mandate from President Rumen Radev at 5 p.m. on Friday. The new government will probably be voted into office by March 27, the daily says. It will also feature other names associated with GERB, with energy and defence being other likely portfolios to come under the party's control. GERB are firmly opposed to keeping Todor Tagarev as minister of defence because of a BGN 400 million deal pushed through on March 6, the very day that the National Assembly accepted the government's resignation as part of the rotation procedure, the paper says. The deal is for the supply of three-coordinate radars from French company Thales. The party doubts the legitimacy of the deal.

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Symptoms of what could be seen as creeping neo-Nazism in Bulgaria are discussed in an analysis published on MediaPool.bg. Such symptoms include swastikas painted on synagogues, the formation of paramilitary groups, threats to resuscitate the system of concentration camps, videos showing "executions" of inconvenient journalists, warnings to send political opponents to the defunct Belene forced labour camp, threats to exterminate entire groups of the population, eulogies for dictators, and hate speech against minorities.

The author of the analysis, Krasen Nikolov, notes that Bulgaria's neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists, who have become more active over the last few years, are not very different from those in other European countries. The difference between Bulgaria and most other European nations is the institutional reaction. Not a single person has been sentenced in this country for spreading neo-Nazi messages in recent years. The bigger problem is that no one has been taken to court on such charges.

The author goes on to discuss the case of Vazrazhdane, a nationalist pro-Russian party represented in the Bulgarian Parliament. He recalls that last November a Sofia prosecutor dismissed a claim by a group of citizens who had demanded that Vazrazhdane be outlawed for spreading anti-democratic ideology. In another recent case, the prosecution service dropped an investigation against Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov, who had urged the "destruction" of those whom he called "mouthpieces of the Embassy of the United States". On that occasion Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov described Vazrazhdane as a neo-Fascist organization, and Kostadinov claimed he was a victim of "the pro-American puppet regime".

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The EU is expanding its list of traffic offences committed by foreign drivers which require cross-border assistance between law enforcers, 24 Chasa says in its main story. This transpired after the European Parliament concluded an unofficial agreement with the EU Council. Dangerous parking and overtaking, crossing an unbroken line and hit-and-run conduct will be added to the original list, which includes speeding, drink driving and running a red light. When searching for an offending driver whose vehicle has foreign license plates, a request can be submitted to the authorities in the driver's home country to search for him for up to two months and to collect the fines imposed on him if they exceed EUR 70. The home country will collect the fines for the benefit of the country where the offence was committed. European Commission data show that drivers are more susceptible to committing speeding offences when they are abroad because they think they are less likely to receive a penalty.

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Outgoing Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov has lied about the number of detained migrants, Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Kornelia Ninova said at a National Assembly hearing on migration. "We cannot trust a single word he says," Ninova insisted. She cited official information from the Interior Ministry which shows that the Bulgarian authorities detained 396 third-country nationals in January, including 76 inbound migrants, 109 outbound migrants and 211 people illegally staying in Bulgaria's interior. Stoyanov has put the number of third-country nationals detained in January at 260, Ninova noted. She blamed the governments of ex-prime minister Boyko Borissov for the problems with migrants. She argued that it will be fair for illegal migrants who have committed offences under Bulgarian law to be returned to their countries of origin, Duma reports.

ECONOMY & HEALTH

Once a centre of energy stability, Bulgaria is becoming a risk factor for the energy stability of the Balkans, expert Tasko Ermenkov says in an interview with Trud. The latest Bulgarian governments have created a situation where no one, partner or competitor, respects this country because it has proven unreliable, inconsistent and unpredictable, Ermenkov says. Unless we put our own house in order, we will get worse and worse, he warns. According to Ermenkov, Bulgargaz and Bulgartransgaz were two of the pillars of the Bulgarian energy industry which used to support the state budget and the national economy, but now they are on the verge of collapse. He predicts that the price of electricity will rise by between 20% and 25% as of July 1 as the household segment of the electricity market is liberalized.

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Half of the insulin products sustaining the life of diabetics are not available in Bulgarian pharmacies or are delivered late or in limited quantities, Trud says in its main story. The reason is that huge amounts of them are kept in warehouses in anticipation of the lifting of the ban on their export. When re-exported to other EU countries, insulin can fetch a price which is up to 40% higher than that on the domestic market. Over 80,000 Bulgarians are on insulin therapy, and there should be about 30 medicinal products for them on the market, according to the Bulgarian Drug Agency. Maya Viktorova, President of the Diabetes Association, commented: "The lack of insulin compromises the control of a patient's condition and can cause serious complications and damage."

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Employees of Metropolitan, the municipal-owned company which operates Sofia's underground railway (the Metro), disagree about how to distribute a 15% pay rise, SegaBG.com says. Employees plan a protest rally on Friday to press their demand for a "fair distribution" of the wage increase. According to the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, the protesters intend to block the entrances to the Metro's Serdika station, which is close to the company headquarters. The workers fear that the agreement concluded on February 26 between Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev and transport unions will not be implemented as signed.