site.btaMedia Review: November 27

PROTEST AGAINST 2026 BUDGET BILL

On Thursday the government withdrew the draft of the 2026 state budget after thousands of people gathered on Wednesday evening in central Sofia to protest against the proposed budget’s increase of the social insurance contribution and the dividend tax. The protest was organized by the opposition Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria.

Speaking on Bulgarian National Radio, political scientist Hristo Panchugov said that this is not a protest about the budget, but a protest against the government. According to him, the issue is that there is a lack of clarity regarding its purpose. “This protest will become hostage to the question: what comes after it? I’m not sure that these protesters want to see a government led by Rumen Radev, nor that they want to see a government of CC–DB together with Vazrazhdane. Besides the aggression in the parliamentary chamber, it would be good for the opposition leading this protest to try to formulate some kind of governing alternative,” he said.

On bTV, political scientist Dimitar Ganev predicted that the ruling coalition will hold on until the end in order to avoid an alternative where President Rumen Radev heads a new political entity.

According to him, this protest will not cause the government to start falling apart. “The budget procedure showed that the governing majority is very united and very solid. Not a single party within it came out beforehand to say that it disapproved of anything in the budget. They understand that the alternative beyond this governing majority is much worse. Elections are not an option for them. The danger for them will come if social tensions escalate - rising utility bills,” he believes.

“The protest was quite significant, it included various social groups, it had boldness. Such a protest by the urban community is always uncomfortable for those in power, and there is a new situation after this protest. The question is whether there won’t be another one like it in February due to various price increases,” commented sociologist Parvan Simeonov.

“The big question is whether there is an alternative to all of this, and in the end it may turn out that President Rumen Radev could scoop up the votes,” he suggested.

In a TrudNews.bg interview, political psychologist Rossen Yordanov says that the presidential elections are the watershed for this government. According to Yordanov, the hidden agenda of this budget is to ensure that no serious upheavals occur in the country, as the sectors receiving the most funding are defence and security, education, and healthcare. These make up the most significant and populous parts of the state administration, which guarantees that large groups of people will not be drawn into protests over grievances that do not actually exist. According to Yordanov, Vazrazhdane, Continue the Change, Velichie, and MECh do not want to govern, but instead are performing a kind of political theater meant to maintain a sense of tension. He also argues that with the protests, CC–DB want to conceal their own lack of expertise and managerial incompetence.

2026 DRAFT BUDGET

Thursday media highlight some of Wednesday’s budget procedure developments.

Dnevnik.bg reports that on Wednesday, the parliamentary budget committee began to debate the 2026 draft budget at second reading. Continue the Change leader and former finance minister Assen Vassilev attempted to block the committee session during the parliamentary recess. The situation escalated, when committee chair Delyan Dobrev of GERB tried to remove Vassilev from the session, but MPs blocked ushers’ access to the chairman of Continue the Change.

During the four-hour session MPs voted to increase the pension contribution by 2 percentage points, and the maximum social insurance income to EUR 2,352; freeze the maximum pension at EUR 1,738 and the minimum and maximum unemployment benefits at EUR 9.21 and EUR 54.78; set the minimum wage at EUR 620; increase the child care allowance up to 2 years of age to EUR 460.17’ increase to 75% from the previous 55% the allowance for mothers returning to work during the second year of maternity; set at EUR 346.87 the minimum pension for length of service and age from 1 July; increase salaries of junior doctors.

Among the proposals submitted between the first and second readings of the government draft, GERB, MRF, and BSP proposed that the state awards under concession the national sports totalizer. Another new proposal is to increase state guarantees on bond loans by the Bulgarian Development Bank to allow for the acquisition of Lukoil assets in Bulgaria.

ALTERNATIVE BUDGET PROPOSALS

Sega.bg writes that an unprecedented front has emerged against the overgenerous budget and summarizes the key points in the alternative proposals by the opposition, independent economists, and employer organizations. A significant portion of the proposals overlap, indicating broad public support.

Continue the Change (CC) submitted a full package of measures before the second reading of the budget, including a reduction of over EUR 1.8 billion in projected expenditures, so that the budget fits within the 3% deficit without raising social insurance contributions or taxes.

According to CC calculations, administrative costs could be reduced by EUR 274 million by limiting the growth for 2026 to 5% instead of the proposed 10%. Another EUR 138 million could be saved by eliminating 5,500 permanently unfilled positions and capping state employee bonuses at the level of a ministerial salary.

CC insists that salary growth next year in the Ministry of Interior, SANS, SATO, and the Commission for Protection of Competition be limited to 5%, as in other state institutions. This would save the state over EUR 240 million. If salary increases in the judicial system were limited to 5% instead of the proposed 15%, it would save an additional EUR 73 million. They also propose that the EUR 7.7 billion for capital expenditures be reduced by EUR 500 million. CC also wants to abolish the mechanisms for an automatic increase of wages.

Similar to CC–DB, employers see over EUR 990 million in the central budget as a “black box” of the government’s discretionary funds, which could be reduced by at least EUR 300 million. They also consider the capital expenditures programme as unrealistic, allowing at least EUR 234 million in investments to be cut. They emphasize state apparatus spending, arguing that for all budgetary units, salary increases next year should be limited to 5% rather than allowing certain sectors double-digit growth. The business says that it is high time to update property tax assessments. Doubling current values would generate at least EUR 1.1 billion in additional revenue (including over EUR 140 million in VAT). This measure would stabilize the financial situation of municipalities, and have a positive impact on the national budget overall.

In a similar vein, the Institute for Market Economics (IME) proposes reducing the number of public sector employees to a maximum of 20% of all employees under labor and civil service contracts in the country; limiting personnel expenditures in the consolidated budget to 10% of GDP; and laying off nearly 100,000 public sector employees over the next three years.

IME also proposes a mechanism for laying off employees in the administration through a special fund to finance the optimization process, with an extended period for paying out owed salaries upon dismissal (up to two years).

2026 HEALTHCARE DRAFT BUDGET

Mediapool.bg writes that the 2026 budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), amounting to 5.5 billion euros, was adopted at second reading by the parliamentary budget committee on Wednesday. The opposition criticized it for again directing over 50% of resources toward expensive and ineffective hospital treatment, while only a very small share goes to prevention.

The majority in the committee approved all proposals between the first and second readings submitted by the ruling parties, including that the state transfer of EUR 260 million for increasing the salaries of medical workers be used only by state and municipal hospitals, and that general practitioners give their patients access to their electronic health records.

The NHIF budget provides, as of January 1 2026, a minimum salary of EUR 1,860 for junior physicians and EUR 1,550 for a nurse. Healthcare facilities must update the base salaries of their staff within 3 months of the law’s entry into force, retroactively.

At the proposal of GERB, it was decided that the state will cover the health insurance contributions of the Bulgarian monks at the Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos. This concerns around 34 people, and the financial cost is symbolic. However, a proposal by Continue the Change for the state to cover health insurance for women during the two years of maternity leave was rejected.

Currently, the legislation obliges employers to pay the health insurance contributions of employees on maternity leave, which makes young women unattractive hires for small businesses.

LUKOIL SPECIAL ADMINISTRATOR REMOVES OLD MANAGEMENT

Sega.bg writes that Lukoil’s special commercial administrator Rumen Spetsov continues the personnel purge in the Bulgarian subsidiaries of the sanctioned Russian company.

The first task of the former head of the National Revenue Agency in his new capacity was to remove Evgeny Manyakhin as chairman of the board of Lukoil Neftochim and as the company’s representative. Manyakhin, who holds a Swiss passport, was demoted to an ordinary board member, while Spetsov became the sole operational manager and representative of the petrochemical complex in Burgas. Further changes in the same direction are now underway.

Spetsov has submitted documents to the Commercial Register to remove the existing heads of Lukoil Bulgaria, Lukoil Aviation, and Lukoil Bunkering. The first company manages Lukoil gas stations and warehouses, trading fuels and other petroleum products. The second sells aviation fuel, while Bunkering supplies ships with petroleum products.

Currently, the application to remove Alexander Velichkov as manager of Lukoil Bulgaria is being processed. Velichkov, a lawyer, was appointed by the Russians to lead the retail chain, replacing long-time head Valentin Zlatev. He still retains his position as chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lukoil Neftochim for now.

Similar changes have been initiated in the other two Lukoil companies. The applications to remove Russian citizen Mikhail Sizov as manager of Lukoil Aviation and Lukoil Bulgaria Bunkering are being processed in the Commercial Register. Once completed, Spetsov will be the sole head of all these companies.

ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION INVESTIGATES PONZI SCHEME LINKED TO VELICHIE LEADER

TrudNews.bg writes that the anti-corruption commission has launched an investigation into real estate fraud and a money laundering scheme linked to the political party Velichie.

The operation is led by the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office.

Agents from the anti-corruption commission and gendarmerie and police teams searched addresses in Sofia, Varna, Shumen, Pazardzhik, as well as in the village of Neofit Rilski, where the Historical Park attraction, associated with Ivelin Mihaylov, is located. The investigation is based on media reports and signals from members of parliament, alleging a Ponzi scheme, run by Velichie leader Ivelin Mihaylov. The MP himself is not among the detained. However, investigators cannot take action against Mihaylov due to his parliamentary immunity. To question him or hold him accountable, he must either waive his immunity, or Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov must submit a request to parliament for its removal. 

The anti-corruption commission has been working on the case since December 2024.

Ivelin Mihaylov confirmed that authorities entered his home and the homes of his associates and said that anyone, who is not convenient to the authorities gets charged.

In early November, MECh leader Radostin Vassilev announced at a parliamentary briefing that he would alert institutions to violations by Velichie leader Ivelin Mihaylov and his associates linked to Historical Park. According to him, they “defraud citizens through fake investment offers and fictitious real estate projects.” At that briefing, four people were present who claimed they had been misled into investing in a company connected to Ivelin Mihaylov and Historical Park.

ANTI-ART TRAFFICKING OPERATION

On 19 November, an operation led by Bulgarian authorities and supported by Europol, resulted in the dismantling of a criminal network involved in large-scale trafficking of cultural goods across Europe and beyond. It involved law enforcement and judicial authorities from Albania, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Law enforcers made 35 arrests in Bulgaria, 131 searches including houses, vehicles and bank safes (1 in Albania, 120 in Bulgaria, 3 in France, 3 in Germany, 4 in Greece) and seized over 3 000 artefacts, with an estimated value of over EUR 100 million.

24 Chasa carries an interview with Deputy Sofia City Prosecutor Angel Kanev who says that the criminal group operated for more than 15 years as an extremely well-structured network with clearly defined roles for acquiring the artefacts, creating false provenance, finding clients, and trafficking these artifacts from the countries of origin to market countries. They held a significant share of the illegal artifact market, as well as a major role and high activity in trafficking and “laundering the origin” of illegally acquired artifacts. The evidence so far shows that they were remarkably successful in presenting the goods at legally operating auctions in the largest European, American, and Asian centers where such deals take place. They invested their funds mainly in luxury real estate abroad, not so much in Bulgaria.

“We uncovered numerous fictitious transactions, concealed ownership of investment gold, and artefacts with fabricated provenance. This clearly shows that Bulgaria does not belong on the grey list of countries that fail to adequately counter money laundering from criminal activity. In this and other similar cases, the evidence shows that we are dealing with the typical 20th-century method of laundering money - through real estate, gold, and expensive items, including all the artifacts.

Kanev adds that work on similar cases across Europe and around the world requires a great deal of time, tracking of numerous transfers, transactions, travels, and documentation. Such an investigation, even for the best in the field (investigators in Italy) usually takes around 8–10 years. The primary goal of the countries of origin of the artifacts, such as Bulgaria, is first to ensure that these artifacts are located and secured legally through the appropriate court orders, in order to guarantee their return to the country of origin.

In some countries, similar acts are subject only to administrative liability, or they constitute customs violations. These are mostly Western countries, which are not countries of origin for the artifacts.

Policies for combating crime differ from state to state. Numerous structural and legislative changes also affect this process both in Bulgaria and abroad. This type of crime requires policies not only within law-enforcement and legal-enforcement agencies but also across many other institutions.