site.btaMedia Review: April 28

POLITICS

The news media cover Day One of the visit by European Council President Antonio Costa. Trud reports that meeting with Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, Costa commended Bulgaria's progress in satisfying the criteria for joining the Eurozone. In the context of the EU's decision to increase investments in defence, Bulgaria has an exceptional opportunity to play a key role, said Costa. He also met with President Rumen Radev.

The media also look into the purpose of Donald Trump Jr.'s visit to Sofia for a business event.

Party politics featured high on Sunday when Yes, Bulgaria elected two co-leaders and former Socialist Party leader Korneliya Ninova founded a new party.

Segabg.com says Bozhidar Bozhanov and Ivaylo Mirchev were elected as the new co-leaders of Yes, Bulgaria, part of the Democratic Bulgaria (DB) coalition allied with Continue the Change. Their election took place at a national conference, following the resignation of former leader Hristo Ivanov, who stepped down after the party's poor performance in the June 2024 elections. Ivanov had led Yes, Bulgaria since 2017 when it was founded. In his address to the delegates, he emphasized the need for a comprehensive right-wing democratic doctrine for every political sector. "We must clearly and seriously engage the middle class with a new offer, because they have the most to lose," he said. He also called on the party to "move beyond protest-mode and actively seek power."

Interviewed by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), Bozhanov quoted Atanas Atanassov, leader of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, Yes, Bulgaria's partner in the DB coalition. He said "the prevailing winds in Parliament are blowing towards less freedom and fewer guarantees for the rule of law. That is why DB must attract more voters and seek power on the grounds that it has won broader support". Bozhanov also said that in difficult geopolitical situations, it is the right-wing entities that manage to steer the course. "Parties like Continue the Change, Save Sofia and the Green Movement are part of this community and we must find a way towards constructive partnership," he said.

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Mediapool.bg reports that Korneliya Ninova termed the new Defiant Bulgaria "a centre-left popular party," which will not work with the present leadership of the Bulgarian Socialist Party as it is part of the ruling coalition. "We will be a moral alternative to Bulgaria's governance," she told journalists. Defiant Bulgaria members cannot accept "the governance of the mafia, the regrouping of the deep state, and the capture of all resources."

Segabg.com reports that the new party named GERB leader Boyko Borissov and MRF-New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski as its main opponents. Ninova said the convening of a Grand National Assembly (GNA) to amend the Constitution would be her main political goal. The GNA would fundamentally restructure the state, including reducing the number of MPs, removing their immunities, expanding referendum opportunities, limiting political appointments to the Supreme Judicial Council, and restoring full presidential authority over caretaker governments. Ninova is opposed to Bulgaria's planned entry into the eurozone in 2026, arguing that the country is not yet prepared. On Ukraine, she reaffirmed her stance for an immediate ceasefire, peace talks, restoring Bulgaria's relations with Russia and lifting sanctions.

Hristo Prodanov of the Executive Council of Defiant Bulgaria told BNR the party would rely on those 70% of people who do not go to the polls because once in Parliament, the parties they voted for did not deliver what they had promised.

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Interviewed by bTV, former caretaker interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said the charges of mismanagement against him leave the impression that instead of gathering evidence and applying the law, the prosecution service is seeking a media effect. Demerdzhiev has been charged with mismanagement worth BGN 1,482,218 committed on June 2, 2023. On that date he signed a document to increase prices for activities subject to a contract for the development of Bulgaria's ID system. He told bTV these are "some of the most secure and well-designed Bulgarian personal documents in Europe and the world". For nearly six months, Interior Ministry teams worked on the project to check if there are grounds to increase the price. Just before the final stage of the procedure, the Public Procurement Agency found that the grounds were valid and the method used to calculate the price indexing was absolutely correct.

DONALD TRUMP JR.'S SOFIA VISIT

The media cover Donald Trump Jr.'s visit to Sofia on Sunday for a forum which brought together 150 representatives of the Bulgarian business community. Also attending were US Embassy Charge d'Affaires ad interim Susan Falatko, Israeli Ambassador Yosef Levi Sfari and Israel's Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel. Trump Jr. arrived from Belgrade to take part in Trump Business Vision 2025, a forum hosted by cryptocurrency company Nexo. Trud quotes organizers as saying he was tired after the long flight and felt unwell for media engagements. GERB leader Boyko Borissov held a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. but the party's press office said details of the conversation could not be disclosed without Trump Jr.'s consent. The exclusive business event gathered global leaders for a strategic dialogue focused on the integration of technology and finance, as well as the deepening partnership between American businesses and global capital. Organizers noted that Trump Jr.'s first official business visit to Bulgaria was a testament to the growing international economic cooperation.

Interviewed by Nova TV, former deputy foreign minister Milen Keremedchiev said Trump Jr.'s visit sent a message "Buy American, I'm here," in the context of the trade war with China. The event organized by Nexo highlighted Trump's plan for an increase in investments in high-tech sectors, particularly AI. However, the main point is that Donald Trump Jr. does not want to have any political contacts in Bulgaria, nor to legitimize any politicians, whether they are in the opposition or not, said Keremedchiev.

JUDICIARY

In a BNR interview, Ekaterina Baksanova from the Legal Programme of the Institute for Market Economics discussed some aspects of the judiciary. She noted a lack of consistent criminal policy: "We see how the criminal justice system is being delegitimized. Laws are only being amended to increase penalties, yet criminology has repeatedly proved that this approach does not work. We are seeing populist changes that follow public outrage." Also, the magistrates' salaries and bonuses have increased steadily, while the workload of the system has decreased in recent years. Baksanova also commented on processes initiated by acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov. He recently proposed the dismissal on disciplinary grounds of Pleven District Prosecutor Vladimir Nikolov, who was seen as a potential alternative to him. Sarafov's recent decisions on appointments and dismissal suggest that either he feels secure enough that one day he will become Prosecutor General and can afford to remove people he views as opponents, or he still wants to show that he can emancipate himself, said Baksanova. "Whichever is true, we see once again that decisions are being made outside the constitutionally designated bodies."

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY'S 2024 REPORT

Trud, segabg.com and dnevnik.bg are some of the media reporting that the Council of Ministers has published the 2024 report of the State Agency for National Security (SANS) on its website. The government has approved the document, which is yet to be adopted by Parliament. The report lists Russia's aggressive conduct, hybrid attacks, disinformation, intelligence activities against Bulgaria, and the excessive use of antibiotics as some of the main risks to national security. According to the analysis, the Kremlin is using an evolving hybrid toolkit aimed at undermining the consensus in support of Ukraine, obstructing the expansion of NATO and the EU, and minimizing the impact of imposed sanctions. Among the methods used are the concentration of military forces, nuclear threats, intelligence operations, economic influence through energy resources, cyberattacks and propaganda campaigns.

The report also notes that instability in the Western Balkans, driven by both external and internal factors, generates risks for security and for the advancement of Bulgaria's national interests.

The SANS also reports a consistently high level of intelligence activity by foreign services in Bulgaria. Major threats include influencing political decisions, undermining national identity, manipulating public opinion and creating dependencies. In 2024, several cases of espionage were thwarted, including operations by Russian agents and intelligence officers posing as Bulgarian citizens.

FINANCE

In Trud, financial expert Dimitar Chobanov says Bulgaria is among the countries with the biggest debt increase in 2024. He quotes Eurostat data on budget performance and government debt in the EU and the eurozone for 2024. According to the reported data, the situation in the budget sector slightly worsened in 2024 compared to 2023. The deficit increased from 2% to 3% of GDP, which largely accounts for the acceleration of economic growth from 1.9% to 2.8%. Government debt rose by 15.2%, from EUR 21.7 billion to EUR 25 billion, with only three other EU countries seeing a higher percentage increase (relative to GDP, the increase was 1.2 percentage points).

The government has taken steps to ensure that the inflation criterion for Eurozone entry, which is currently being met, will not become an obstacle at the last moment. These include lowering some administratively set prices and likely holding unofficial talks to keep certain prices stable despite the Easter holidays. The likelihood of failing to meet the price stability criterion is small, but still not zero.

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In a Trud interview Denitsa Sacheva, Chair of the parliamentary Labour and Social Policy Committee, talks about forthcoming changes in the pension system. The government has six months to draft a roadmap for reform, which will address liquidity problems that are certain to appear in the future. It will map out the steps that will ensure the financial sustainability of both the National Social Security Institute and the voluntary pension insurance companies. Asked if the rate of social insurance contributions will increase, Sacheva says the issue has two aspects. Politically, there is a consensus in the government coalition that taxes and social insurance contributions will not be raised. From an expert perspective, this will certainly need to happen in the medium term, as both the contributory income and labour costs will increase, and the latter are a component of the price of all goods and services. Therefore, an increase in social insurance contributions will likely need to be planned, but everything should be done systematically, moderately and gradually. Sacheva also discusses multifunds and their establishment as sub-funds within each pension company. Insured persons will be able to choose a pension fund and within that fund, to choose how their pension savings are managed according to their individual risk tolerance, which varies across different phases of one's life.

CONSUMER RIGHTS

24 Chasa frontpages an interview with MEP Andrey Novakov (EPP/GERB), the rapporteur for revisions of the Air Passengers Rights Regulation. He says that compensation for delayed or cancelled flights will be paid automatically within 14 days. He expects this to become one of the main points of contention between airlines and intermediaries, mainly websites selling tickets. "You buy a ticket from a website. If the flight is cancelled, you seeks compensation from the airline, but the airline refers you to the website, which tells you it didn't cancel the flight - the airline did," Novakov says. He will also push for automatic refunds in cases where a flight is oversold.

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Trud warns on its front page about cheap holiday scams. Ana Miteva from the southern town of Asenovgrad defrauded more than 100 people of BGN 718,000 with promises of exotic trips. The Plovdiv District Court gave her a suspended sentence a few days ago. She deceived many people between 2016 and 2019 by falsely claiming that she was organizing affordable trips to destinations including Dubai, Marrakech, the Maldives, Bali, Punta Cana and Japan. Posing as an employee of a well-known travel agency, Miteva offered promotional packages at exceptionally low prices, saying they were secret deals for friends or pre-booked group spots for large companies. She claimed the promotional prices were available for a limited time and urged clients to send the money promptly.

SOFIA'S METRO

Following Friday's dismissal of Stoyan Bratoev, the long-serving CEO of the municipal company Metropolitan which operates Sofia's underground railway, Bratoev told BNT he had been involved in the entire organization of the metro from the very beginning: "I created it as a structure, in terms of staff training and preparation, and I will continue to do so to ensure the metro operates effectively. I have not been dismissed as a member of the board of directors; I still hold all managerial functions." He stressed that construction will continue as planned and he will be closely monitoring everything. He declined to comment on why his removal as CEO attracted so much attention. Bratoev also said an order for purchasing new trains for the metro had been cancelled: the original order was for 8, but it will likely be changed to 16 trains. The decision rests with Sofia Municipality, he said.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Trud.bg quotes US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as telling NBC News that President's Trump's administration has held off imposing new sanctions on Russia to allow diplomacy to work. He said Moscow and Kyiv are closer to a deal than they have been any time in the last three years, but it is still not there.

Interviewed by BNR, Valeriy Todorov, a former BNR and BNT correspondent in Moscow, said the only country which can now act as a mediator and guarantor is the United States. Furthermore, Trump views politics as a derivative of economic interests. Regarding Ukraine's ambition to join NATO, the journalist said it had been put on the back burner: "Ukraine wants to join under Article 5, meaning that it seeks the highest level of guarantees from NATO, while Washington is avoiding such a commitment. (…) The US views an economic deal with Ukraine as a guarantee that it will not be the target of aggression." In Todorov's words, a ceasefire is closer, while peace remains a more distant prospect and "will likely take at least a decade as a process." Meanwhile, a serious compromise is being considered, one that harms Ukraine - the recognition of Russia's annexation of Crimea.

On Nova TV, the historian and diplomat Mihail Stanchev, a Bessarabian Bulgarian from Ukraine, commented that Europe's security could be ensured by creating a corridor between Scandinavia and Turkiye, including the Black, Baltic and Adriatic Seas. In that case Ukraine would not need to join NATO but would still have security guarantees. Stanchev expects that Ukraine will attempt to regain some of its territories - the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Regarding Crimea, a de facto, but not de jure, recognition of Russian authority is likely to occur, similar to the situation with Donbas.