site.btaMedia Review: September 3

VON DER LEYEN’S PLANE LANDING

“Financial Times Invents Attempt on Life of Popess Ursula,” runs the leading headline in Trud. Why the daily uses the mock-term “Popess” in reference to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen becomes clear in the beginning of the story. It says, with irony, that Bulgarians are really unlucky. After making an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, the other day they failed to send “Popess Ursula” straight to Heaven.

Forty-four years ago, John Paul II was shot and nearly killed by a Turkish man, Mehmet Ali Agca. A “Bulgarian connection” was suspected in the case as part of an alleged Soviet conspiracy but was never proven in court. Visiting Bulgaria in 2002, the pontiff himself stated he did not believe in the “Bulgarian connection”. On August 31, 2025, a flight carrying Ursula von der Leyen lost the satellite GPS signal to its navigation system when approaching Plovdiv Airport in South Central Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority immediately proposed instrument landing as an alternative, and the plane touched down successfully. The Financial Times (FT) reported that "a suspected Russian interference attack targeting Ursula von der Leyen disabled GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport". Von der Leyen’s short visit to Bulgaria was part of her tour of so-called front-line states intended to reassure them of the EU's support against Russian aggression and bolster defence spending.

The Trud story says that due to misinformation spread by the FT about a plot against the EC chief, Bulgaria became a “dirty word” just as it did after the assassination attempt against the Pope. In the von der Leyen case, the paper says, it has been a propaganda campaign whose original source was an FT podcast on which two journalists, one of whom often accompanies the EC chief on her trips, discuss the case as if it was a joke. Based on that, the otherwise reliable British newspaper fired off an article which was obviously prepared in advance and sparked a media hype across Europe.

The Bulgarian publication quotes the flight-tracking site Flightradar24 as saying that the transponder of von der Leyen’s plane indicated good GPS signal quality, dispelling claims of GPS jamming or navigation issues. A day after the Bulgarian government’s initial notice to the EC about the case, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said, as quoted by Trud: “There is no reason to investigate the situation involving the President of the European Commission because this type of interference is considered neither as hybrid nor as a cyberthreat.” The daily also quotes Interior Minister Daniel Mitov as saying hours after the case was first reported: “It is not about a cyberattack.”

Trud editor-in-chief Petyo Blaskov comments on the case in an article headlined “Theory and Practice of Disinformation”. Blaskov says he has always known that journalism, as a profession practiced worldwide, owes much to Britain. His conviction was reinforced by the FT report about the “incident” involving von der Leyen’s plane landing in Plovdiv. The story, developed earlier at a briefing by journalist Henry Foy, is a brief yet exceedingly instructive guide for creating manipulative texts that spread disinformation, Blaskov says. Foy had flown together with von der Leyen, and now this tour was intended to draw attention to the threat posed by Russia and the need for European governments to spend more on defence. As a true and devoted British journalist, Foy undertook to support the mission of the tour in his own way, Blaskov says. According to him, the FT report and the transcript of the briefing involving Foy (published in a slightly abridged Bulgarian translation in Trud) abound in hackneyed phrases straight out of the books on journalistic disinformation. What is really awful is that Europe and the world are talking once more about Bulgaria as a country which is somehow linked to an assassination attempt against a world figure such as the Pope in 1981. Back then, it all started in the same false way, carefully orchestrated through a report by Claire Sterling, commissioned by the deputy editor-in-chief of the Reader’s Digest, Dimi Panitza.

ECONOMY

A small trader miraculously became a large supplier to the government after his electronic cash register disappeared, MediaPool.bg found in an investigation. Ivaylo Kostov lost the cash register in 2011 after a forced entry into his van, which was parked in front of his home. The theft was reported to the tax authorities. The police launched an investigation and the prosecution service instituted pretrial proceedings. Ten years later, an audit on Kostov’s business revealed that almost the whole Bulgarian government, headed by the GERB party at the time, had used his cash register.

The website further reports that dozens of municipal governments headed by GERB-affiliated mayors, ministries and other central government institutions, even the police, the National Assembly and the Public Financial Inspection Agency have been among “Kostov’s clients”. “It turns out I replaced the tyres of the Iraqi ambassador’s car. There is an invoice for it at the National Revenue Agency,” Kostov told MediaPool.bg. He knew nothing about the millions which were changing hands. Existing evidence shows that third parties presented the invoices or entered them in their own books, but the prosecution magistracy never summoned any of them.

The investigation was terminated by limitation in 2025. Based on the invoices, the detriment to the Exchequer is estimated at BGN 4 million. The prosecutors’ inaction has deprived Kostov of the possibility to defend himself before the National Revenue Agency. “There is always someone acting in bad faith, but it’s definitely not Ivaylo in this case,” lawyer Ralitsa Dayarova said.

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The big-time sweeping of wrongdoings under the carpet in connection with the construction of the Hemus Motorway is almost over, SegaBG.com says. The claims of illegal construction of sections 4 and 5 got crushed in court. A judgment is expected shortly about the loads of money poured out under in-house contracts. The in-house contracts themselves will be referred to as a “violation” only in a footnote in a National Audit Office report. Permits are about to be issued for the construction of sections 5 and 6 of this speedway in Northern Bulgaria, whose building has lasted a staggering number of years. When completed, Hemus will link the capital Sofia with the seaside city of Varna. No one is expected to bear responsibility for anything, the website says. Amid the political scandals which suspended construction work for years, the only result is that the prices of the contracts rose dramatically due to inflation, the story says.

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“Government Pays Half of Consumers’ Electricity Bills for July,” caps the main story in 24 Chasa. The headline is based on a quote from Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov, who said that the price which the average Bulgarian household had to pay for electricity for July was about BGN 60. If no agreement had been reached to postpone the full liberalization of the electricity market and if households had to buy electricity on the free market, the bills would have been higher by 46%. This means that households saved nearly half of their electricity expenses, Stankov said.

POLITICS & SOCIETY

Velislava Delcheva, who recently took over as Ombudsman of Bulgaria, discusses her first steps and priorities in an interview with Trud. Asked how she will regain people’s trust that the Ombudsman is not someone with limited powers, Delcheva says she plans to work in partnership with the central government and local authorities, believing that if something doesn’t get done the first time, it will be done the third or the fourth time. She says she never gives up on a cause if she knows it is worthwhile. She insists that the Ombudsman should be removed from the list of senior public officials eligible to become prime minister in a possible caretaker government.

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Why do Bulgarians like fake news so much? The matter is discussed in a 24 Chasa analysis by Anelia Nikiforova, who says that fake news spreads in Bulgaria at lightning speed through social media platforms and online communication channels, and such misinformation is becoming increasingly accessible. Bulgaria is the EU’s most vulnerable country in this respect, Nikiforova says, citing the 2022 Media Literacy Index of the Open Society Institute-Sofia.

Emil Dzhasim, a teacher, tells the daily in an interview that Bulgarians have so much trust in fake news because many people need validation for their own thoughts and perceptions, and they tend to accept something as correct if it is presented as “an outrageous truth which they are hiding from us”. Another factor is the power of emotional manipulation, Dzhasim says. Fake news, he says, is almost always targeted at our fears, anger, prejudices and a desire to hear what corresponds to our emotions at a given moment. It always sounds sensational, and above all, totally outrageous, and since indignation is the strongest emotion, such misinformation spreads at lightning speed. Dzhasim notes that Bulgarians have witnessed corruption and dependencies in news media for years on end, which has led many to totally distrust official reports, whether they come from government institutions or media outlets.

TRAM DERAILMENT

A tram which crashed in downtown Sofia early on Tuesday morning was apparently driven by children, Municipal Councillor Simeon Stavrev said on Wednesday’s morning talk show of bTV, confirming earlier reports. The tram crashed into an underpass and several parked cars after reportedly travelling uncontrolled between two stops. The underpass was almost completely destroyed. No one was reported injured. Reports indicate that the tram driver had stepped out for coffee when the vehicle started moving.

Duma says in its main story that the youth alliance of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) chapter in Sofia has called for the appointment of a deputy mayor in charge of security. The BSP youths warned that Sofia is in “a crisis of security”. They noted that Mayor Vasil Terziev has not fulfilled his promise to appoint a deputy mayor for security. Municipal Councillor Ivan Takov (BSP) said that if the tram derailment was the result of reckless hooligan behaviour, it would be tantamount to a terrorist act. Takov said the vehicle was racing at 80 km/h at the time of the crash. “Flaunting such irresponsibility and a sense of impunity is exceedingly disturbing,” he commented.

According to 24 Chasa, a tram driver may leave the tram cabin only if necessary for the discharge of his duties. This is written in the official rules and safety instructions for public electric transport drivers.

SegaBG.com says the tram driver will receive an administrative penalty.