site.btaMedia Review: June 24

MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT

Trud and Telegraph report Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov convenes a security meeting on the Middle East after the US strikes Iranian nuclear sites, with key ministers and security chiefs present.

They note that President Rumen Radev urges the UN Security Council’s permanent members to start dialogue to avert a global catastrophe and calls the escalation “extremely worrying”. The Government sees no immediate threat and stays in constant touch with EU and NATO partners.

Trud highlights Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov’s assurance that even a closure of the Strait of Hormuz will not disrupt Bulgaria’s fuel supply; cargo is already en route to Burgas. He reports only minor price moves and stresses that LNG deals and Azeri pipeline gas keep domestic prices about 15% below market.

Telegraph adds Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov’s view that Bulgaria faces no direct military danger; radiation readings remain stable and Sofia hopes Tehran turns to diplomacy.

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Bulgarian National Television featured Arabist Professor Vladimir Chukov as a guest on its morning program, who said that neither Israel nor Iran was interested in prolonging the conflict. “We were already discussing a 12-day war… the ceasefire is expected to be formalized within the next 24 hours, with both parties committing to no further attacks,” Chukov said.

He added that each side would declare victory: “One side will claim it destroyed the nuclear programme, the other that it survived,” Chukov noted.

POLITICS

24 Chasa and Mediapool.bg say Sofia Region mayors Ivaylo Kukurin (Mladost borough) and Georgi Todorov (Lyulin borough) leave Continue the Change (CC) after alleging party leaders press them to rig public tenders and divert money to party coffers. They stay in office as independents, joined by municipal councillors Dimitar Shalafov and Dragomir Dragomirov.

Kukurin says, “I refuse to be a facade and sign rigged contracts,” noting pressure to approve a BGN 5 million kindergarten tender and share cuts with the party, Kukurin said.

Todorov adds that senior figures discuss commissions for companies linked to a party MP and calls such practices “absolutely unacceptable”, Todorov said.

Shalafov says “It turned out the change was just a change in the share of the cut that they offer you…” He argues democracy yields to favouritism and files a list of irregularities. He says he plans to submit evidence to the authorities.

Sofia mayor Vasil Terziev insists corruption has no place in the administration and pledges full transparency. “We have made mistakes, we have recognized those mistakes, but my fight was always protecting the public funds and their use,” Terziev says.

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24 Chasa, Telegraph and Mediapool.bg write that Continue the Change (CC) opens an internal corruption probe after the Mladost and Lyulin mayors quit the party. Co-chairs Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev urge the four officials to submit all evidence to the Prosecution Service and the Counter-Corruption Commission, while still demand the resignations of head of the Counter-Corruption Commission Anton Slavchev and acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov. “Send the information immediately, not rumours but reports,” Petkov says.

The daily notes that the party’s executive council tells every member and councillor to forward any details of pressure or kickbacks. Vassilev adds that checks show tenders in the two boroughs are called at the lowest possible price and invites anyone instructed otherwise to name the person. Vassilev says that he trusts the party leadership.

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Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), BNT, nova TV and bTV reported that Sofia councillor Dimitar Shalafov said on social media that he had spent the previous night testifying to the Counter-Corruption Commission about alleged pressure inside Continue the Change.

“I provided all the facts I know; the truth will surface, though some may find it hard to swallow,” Shalafov wrote. He added that dozens of people—including Mayor Vasil Terziev—had tried to contact him, but his phone had been held while he testified.

Shalafov said he backed Sofia borough mayors Ivaylo Kukurin and Georgi Todorov “because I believe they are telling the truth”, noted that earlier alerts about lesser irregularities had been ignored by party leaders, and denied being “bought” or summoned by a text message.

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BNR also reported that journalist Veselin Stoynev said the rift rocking CC–DB was “serious” and that detailed revelations lay ahead. “The commitment to anti-corruption was central to this organization, but it was now being undermined,” Stoynev said, predicting deep damage to the party and coalition if the scandal widened.

Stoynev observed that CC–DB and Save Sofia had lacked a majority in Sofia city council, facing pressure from both allies and the economic bloc.

Stoynev highlighted the paradox that CC-DB brands the Prosecution Service and the Counter-Corruption Commission as “captured” institutions yet still urges people to submit their evidence precisely to those same bodies.

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bTV interviewed Sofia deputy mayor for finance Ivan Vasilev, who said he had never received any complaints of political pressure inside the municipality and would have “taken the appropriate action” had such warnings reached him.

Vasilev called the corruption accusations levelled by district mayors and councillors “extremely troubling” and urged them to supply detailed evidence. He added that Mayor Vasil Terziev planned separate meetings with the whistle-blowers and Continue the Change’s national leadership, while an internal audit of the Lyulin and Mladost boroughs—ordered the previous day—was due within three working days. Explaining the budget process, Vasilev noted that each of the nine deputy mayors received an allocation after the council passed the annual budget and individually managed procurement in their own portfolios.

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Mediapool.bg says Parliament still runs a 41-member friendship group with Russia even though Moscow lists Bulgaria as an “unfriendly” state. National Assembly Chair Natalia Kiselova of BSP – United Left, who, in an unprecedented move for a National Assembly Chair, has joined not just the friendship group with Russia, but all 92 bilateral groups, notes, “We have not declared war on them [Russia].”

The group is led by socialist Petar Kanev after rows with MPs from Vazrazhdane and Velichie over the position of chair. “This is simply a committee for parliamentary contacts; one must distinguish between Pushkin and Putin,” Kanev says, adding that “cave Russophobia” irritates him.

Membership includes 11 MPs from BSP – United Left, 10 from Vazrazhdane, eight from Velichie, five from the Democracy, Rights and Freedoms – Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DRF – MRF), and four from There Is Such a People (TISP), but none from Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). Two GERB MPs, Branimir Balachev and Nikolay Bratovanov, appear on the roster before their names vanish. Defence Committee chief Hristo Gadzhev insists, “We cannot join a friendship group with a country that calls us an enemy,” Gadzhev says, later admitting the pair “perhaps got confused.” Balachev responds, “I found about this from you… I don’t know who put my name there,” he says.

ECONOMY

Duma reports Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov urges retail chains not to fuel speculative price rises and warns that regulators will sanction any unjustified increases.

The paper adds that Nikolay Valkanov, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Modern Trade, which unites 70 food and non-food chains employing 57,000 people and posting BGN 20 billion turnover last year, says business is largely prepared for euro adoption and that overall inflation in staple goods is minimal; he calls on the Consumer Protection Commission to intensify monitoring.

Economist Daniela Bobeva notes companies lose competitiveness if they lift prices, as higher-cost producers then enter the market, and argues state efforts will fail without business commitment to fair pricing.

Executive Director of the National Revenue Agency Rumen Spetsov says that detailed results from inspections of 14 basic product groups across more than 30 cities, launched on 3 June, will be published on 25 June, in coordination with the Commission for Protection of Competition and the Commission for Consumer Protection, giving a nationwide price snapshot.

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Telegraph cites analyst Adrian Nikolov of the Institute for Market Economics, who finds that, in 2024, Bulgarian shelf prices for oils and fats stand at 118% of the EU average and those for milk, cheese and eggs at 126%. Bread, meat and fruit remain cheaper, at 73-75%.

Nikolov notes that dairy and egg prices surpass the EU norm during the pandemic and keep widening, whereas oils and fats peak in 2022 before easing by 17 points yet still exceed the continental benchmark. He argues the persistent gap raises questions about productivity, efficiency and competition in the relevant food chains.

The paper adds that 2023 costs for housing & utilities and healthcare run at only 38% and 44% of the EU mean, while communications reach 82% and all food & soft-drink items 88%. Despite overall low price levels—Bulgaria and Romania sit at 60% and 64% of the EU composite—clothing and communications drift further from the norm in 2024, whereas food ratios stay flat.

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 Dnevnik says Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) renews its attack on Serbia for letting ammunition reach Ukraine via Bulgaria and now names the Bulgarian company EMKO, owned by Emiliyan Gebrev, as a channel. The SVR claims Serbian plant Krusik sells kits for 122 mm Grad rockets to Czech company Policske strojirny, while Eling in Loznica sends identical kits and 120 mm mortar parts to EMKO for assembly in Bulgaria and Czechia before delivery to Kyiv.

“Serbian makers know their missiles will kill Russian soldiers and civilians,” the SVR press bureau says, warning that centuries-old Orthodox solidarity is “erased by greed and cowardly multivectorism.”

Dnevnik recalls past explosions at EMKO’s depots near Karnobat and the 2025 blast at Policske strojirny; Gebrev himself survives an earlier poisoning attributed to Russian agents.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic responds that Belgrade “stops practically all exports and now sends munitions to our own army,” Vucic says, though he previously argued factories must stay profitable. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expects Serbia to “take measures” to halt such sales.

Dnevnik writes that the Moscow daily Kommersant offers an additional explanation: many in Serbia’s leadership are disgruntled because they expected a 10-year extension of a cheap Russian-gas deal that expired on May 31, but Gazprom prolonged it by only four months.

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Bulgarian National Television (BNT) interviewed Vladimir Ivanov, Chair of the State Commission for Commodity Exchanges and Wholesale Markets, who said there had been no drastic price hikes in the consumer basket, calling 2025 “the year of expensive fruit” because weather-hit harvests had driven steeper trends only in produce.

Sugar prices had edged up by BGN 0.1 despite a global decline, while cabbage and onion supplies had already saturated the market and overall curves still matched 2023 levels, Ivanov noted.

He added that adopting the euro would not worsen conditions but offered “a good opportunity for Bulgaria,” recalling that the minimum wage bought more than it had in 2010. Ivanov urged shoppers to stay vigilant, pointing out that identical products could cost 30–40% more in local stores; “a wholesale price is just one benchmark, and we saw no negative trends,” he said.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Mediapool.bg and Dnevnik report that special prosecutor Daniela Taleva again refuses to open an inquiry into Prosecutor-General Borislav Sarafov after civic group BOEC accuses him of shielding Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Leader Delyan Peevski in public procurement schemes revealed in the Petar “the Euro” Petrov archive.

The allegations are “groundless, abstract and uncorroborated”, Taleva says, noting that earlier railway-tender cases have already been reviewed and even produced three convictions.

The site recalls that Taleva last year declined to scrutinize the BGN 5,000-plus monthly pay of Sarafov’s former wife and son from Union Ivkoni, reasoning, “Receiving a salary cannot be a crime,” Taleva says. She confirms Sarafov visits the Eight Dwarfs restaurant “a few times” but stresses that no witness sees him alone with Petar “the Euro” Petrov or swapping documents.

BOEC criticizes the secrecy around Taleva’s decisions, pointing out that her refusals are sent only to the complainant and she rarely appears in the media.

SOCIETY

24 Chasa interviews former health minister Asena Serbezova, who was among the 300 passengers, who remain confined for almost an hour without information after a London–Sofia flight lands at Sofia’s Vasil Levski Airport at the end of last week.

“We stay locked in a corridor for 20 minutes, the overall wait is 50 minutes and no one explains anything; I even called the emergency services],” Serbezova said, adding that staff give no guidance and basic passenger care is missing.

Transport Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Grozdan Karadjov orders an urgent report from the Civil Aviation Administration, the ground handler’s licence is suspended and the administration’s chief secretary resigns.

Serbezova calls the event a “Swiss-cheese failure” and notes confusion over procedures for UK arrivals now outside Schengen.

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Telegraph says Education Minister Krasimir Valchev warns that Bulgaria faces a shortage of mathematics and science teachers and that school curricula are “overly ambitious”, Valchev said. He notes ten times more school-leavers sit a foreign-language matriculation than mathematics because weak Bulgarian-language skills hinder comprehension of problems.

The minister adds that teaching hours in maths and the sciences have been cut, while interest in maths-profiled high schools outstrips the available facilities in big cities. He explains that timetables could be revised by trimming other subjects to boost STEM hours and invites proposals during summer consultations.

Teachers, university lecturers, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences researchers, parent groups, employers, MPs and education experts attend the forum to draft measures that raise student interest and improve the quality of maths and science education.

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Dnevnik republishes Emilia Milcheva’s article asking whether a presidential nominee can energize Bulgaria’s 550,000 voters aged 20–29 or whether “costumed deal-makers, devoid of authenticity” will again dominate. “Young people must choose their politicians,” Milcheva writes, warning that they will fund welfare for an ageing society and face challenges posed by climate and AI.

She urges the democratic camp to hold a hackathon so “talents, innovators and activists” can shape a candidate who talks about free speech, climate justice and corruption, not “who Crimea belongs to”. Parties, she notes, hand posts to heirs and careerists while many youths protest or retreat into “apathetic protest” over poor pay and useless degrees.

Citing Poland and Romania, Milcheva shows turnout soars when non-traditional hopefuls run. A contender must master TikTok yet switch effortlessly from “crocs with evening wear” to statesmanlike oratory without sounding fake, she says. The bloc should risk an “unlikely” figure if it hopes to reach a run-off.

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Dnevnik reports that the Kremlin-linked “Pravda” disinformation network boosts its Bulgarian output by 35% between 1 December 2024 and 30 April 2025, making the country the second-most targeted in the Balkans and seventh worldwide per capita. The Center for Information, Democracy and Citizenship and American University in Bulgaria’s Sensika Disinformation Observatory find the volume is 12.4 times higher than the Western-European average.

The study notes that Russian-language Telegram posts fade after December, while Bulgarian-language sources rise to 62% of all content by March to “mask the origin and gain authenticity”. More than 70% is then amplified on Facebook and X by local accounts.

“Pravda” shifts its focus from battlefield triumphs (“We took Donbas!”) to anti-euro themes (“Down with the euro!”), exploiting economic anxiety and cultural grievances to question NATO and EU membership. December pushes a “Winter of victory”; January frames a “Betrayal of the West”; February warns “Euro = Collapse”; March–April touts a “Bulgarian Spring” of protests.

Analysts say the narrative stresses energy dependence on Russia, paints Brussels as a threat to sovereignty and stokes divisions by trumpeting Orthodox-Slavic identity. Urban, educated Bulgarians under 30 mostly resist the messages; older rural users share them disproportionately.

The report warns that the campaign aims to paralyze policymaking ahead of planned euro-zone entry on 1 January 2026, predicting intensified misinformation around key dates: the EU’s summer economic package in August 2025, the start of euro-transition preparations in October, and the year-end switchover—each likely accompanied by calls for a referendum and portrayals of the euro as an existential threat to Bulgarian identity.

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Nova TV reported that Venislav Stankov, president of the firefighters’ union Ogneborets, warned that Bulgaria would enter an even higher-risk fire period within 10-15 days as grasses dried after the heatwave. Stankov said discarded cigarette butts and open flames posed the greatest danger, noting that careless burning of yard debris often spread when no water was on hand. He added that mayors and regional governors were obliged to clear vegetation along roads and that stronger preventive work had begun, though gaps remained. Wind, he stressed, had been “enemy No. 1” once a blaze started because it fanned flames rapidly. Stankov urged media, public figures and citizens to join a constant information campaign so that “no one uses open fire under any circumstances.”