site.btaMedia Review: November 28

2026 DRAFT BUDGETS

Trud says in its main story that Bulgaria's 2026 budget package is being redrafted "based on the golden mean rule" after the budgets proposed by Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova "fell victim to the people's wrath." The package consists of the state budget, the public social insurance budget and the health insurance budget. The daily quotes Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov as saying on Thursday that the government will try to restore dialogue with the trade unions and employer organizations "to find the golden mean in income policy." Meanwhile, Boyko Borissov, the leader of the GERB party, which dominates the three-party government coalition, said he had asked the Prime Minister to withdraw the financial framework for 2026, which had passed in the National Assembly on first reading. Later, GERB hosted a meeting with unions and employers, after which the President of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour, Dimitar Manolov, announced that the budgets were not withdrawn but rather the procedure was suspended, the paper reports.

SegaBG.com comments that GERB's retreat on the budgets introduces a new element to the Bulgarian political scene. Provided it is not a fake move, the step may change the political space in addition to changing the budgets, the website predicts. Boyko Borissov, the GERB leader and former three-time prime minister, has shown on more than one occasion that when a sea of people sweeps the streets, as happened on Wednesday evening, he is ready to put forth his resignation and get transfigured into an open-minded, emotionally elevated poet. But now, the situation is different, argues the author of the article, Petyo Tsekov. Unlike before, Borissov made a decision on behalf of a government and a parliament which he does not control single-handedly. He had always known that the great strength of the so-called Urban Right is the street, and now he apparently realized that despite his efforts, this strength has not vanished. The author speculates that the budget crisis, the flash meetings of committees, the rows – the whole drama over the last few weeks may end in a surprisingly positive way. It may really bring dialogue back into Parliament and make the social partners (the government, trade unions and employer organizations) come back together. Provided Borissov's retreat is not fake, the soap opera can even have a happy end, the journalist concludes.

BNT1, the main channel of Bulgarian National Television, hosted a panel of experts for a discussion about the budget situation on its morning talk show Friday. Analyst Andrey Raychev said the suspension of the budget procedure has set the beginning of a new stage in the life of the nation. Raychev noted that Wednesday's protests in Sofia were not just about the budgets. "Anyway, it could have been about something else," he said. "There is a very simple rule in Bulgaria. Protests bring governments down." Another analyst, Veselin Stoynev, said he was impressed by how many young people from across Bulgaria were at the protests. Such a concentrated multitude of youths had not been observed for years, he argued. Another noteworthy fact was the presence of protesting employers, Stoynev said.

Duma carries a frontpage statement by Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader and Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov, who sees the suspension of the budget procedure as a cause for serious concern. Zafirov says the decision of the Joint Governance Council poses a major risk to the welfare policies envisioned in the draft budgets. Following a meeting of the BSP-United Left coalition, Zafirov states that a complete withdrawal of the proposed 2026 budgets would mean no increase of salaries, maternity benefits, pensions, resources for young doctors, funding for municipalities and all other welfare policies which have been agreed. The 2026 draft state budget is the most social budget ever devised in Bulgaria, Zafirov argues. If the powerholders are unable to honour their social commitments, BSP-United Left will rethink its participation in the government, he warns. He goes on to say that Bulgaria may have to start the year 2026 with the budget scheme for 2025. The nation needs predictability, stability and social responsibility rather than chaos, improvisation and decisions made under pressure, Zafirov says.

POLITICS

Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev was released from confinement after being held up for nearly five months and following six unsuccessful attempts to get out of custody, 24 Chasa reports. The decision was made by the Varna District Court after it took over the case by jurisdiction from the Supreme Court of Cassation. BGN 200,000 bail was set for Kotsev. The prosecutors in the case, posted from Sofia to the seaside city, did not say whether they would appeal the bail ruling. "I haven't done anything illegal," said Kotsev, who went in and out of the Palace of Justice in Varna to the enthusiastic applause of supporters. "I will cooperate to reveal the truth, and I will clear the name of Varna Municipality and my own name. All that has been happening is because I am a political figure." Kotsev is charged with involvement with a crime group which demanded bribes, and with malfeasance in office. MP Lena Borislavova said that bail money will be raised via a bank account of a foundation headed by MP Manol Peykov.

SegaBG.com quotes Peykov as saying shortly after Borislavova's announcement that the amount of BGN 200,000 was raised in less than five hours. Part of the money came via an account set up by popular actor Filip Bukov. The news was reported by Kotsev's wife, who said on the Mayor's official social media profile that over 2,500 donors from across the country contributed to the effort. The court had explained the size of the bail with "the financial assets owned by the defendant, the amount of the damages claimed by the prosecution, and the intention to encourage him to act in good faith during the judicial process."

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A set of avowed counter-corruption measures, which sound like a mere formality, were adopted by the National Assembly on second reading through amendments to the Public Enterprises Act, SegaBG.com says. The measures implement a recommendation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. They met with skepticism from the opposition, which pointed out the obvious by saying that appointing a company board member as an integrity officer will do nothing to suppress graft. The incumbents did not bother to react to the criticism or defend their own proposals, and just approved the measures silently, the website says.

ECONOMY

"The Euro's Digital Twin," caps the cover story in the Capital weekly. The magazine says that the European Central Bank (ECB) is planning to introduce its own digital currency and payment system in 2029. Companies in the euro area will be required to accept payments in digital euro. The new solution will be cheaper than Visa and Mastercard. Such payment operations will be cost-free for customers. While there are possible advantages, the project is also burdened by anxieties and conspiracy theories, the publication says.

Bulgaria is ready to align and will need a relatively smaller amount of investment for the purpose, according to Miroslav Vichev of the Borica payment services company. Vichev writes in Capital that Borica already maintains steady relations with the likely participants in the future system and has proven that it can open new avenues to global and regional schemes. In the case of the digital euro, Borica could open another "gate" based on centralized standards and rules. The digital euro will provide another payment option, not a universal solution, the expert notes. The real advancement, he says, will be the development of harmonized instant payments and the interconnection of national solutions EU-wide.

The magazine also discusses a video which has popped up in the Bulgarian Facebook space over and over. It shows ECB President Christine Lagarde speaking about the digital euro during a press conference in Frankfurt. Posts scream about an alleged ban on cash payments as of October 2025, asserting that the ECB is taking control of all payments. In their comments, Bulgarians wonder what that means for their BGN-denominated savings months before the country's expected entry to the euro area on January 1, 2026. The author of the article, AFP journalist Rosen Bosev, says that the video is part of a far longer disinformation saga. He notes that, as in many similar campaigns, the Bulgarian narrative is not of local origin. Any complex matter like the digital euro provides ample ground to sow fears, he adds.

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"The Blind Eye of the Armed Forces," caps a comment in Capital. The weekly publication says that 2025 was supposed to be the year when Bulgaria would begin to reap the harvest of the allegedly accelerated modernization of its Armed Forces. It is therefore ironic that the Ministry of Defence has obviously wasted an opportunity to acquire new-built NATO radars for a more favourable price, which is 25% lower than the indicative cost of the modernization programme, set at BGN 400 million. This transpired from a project which the government submitted to the National Assembly late last week, the story says. The procedure for the purchase of new-built 3D radars, launched back in February 2023, eventually ranked Thales, the French multinational aerospace and defence corporation, in first place as a future contractor. Thales' binding offer apparently expired before negotiations would start.

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The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission proposes a price hike on water for household customers as Bulgaria joins the euro area on January 1, Trud says. The water price changes suggested by the regulator range widely from region to region, from -16.5% to +13.2%, with most areas getting an increase. The intended change in Sofia is +9.3%, which would be the third highest increase in the country. Public consultation on the proposals will be held on December 2.

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Black Friday psychology makes people behave as if during evacuation, trying to push others out of their way and running fast to get "there" first, 24 Chasa says in its leading story. It notes that Black Friday, which comes in November of every year and actually lasts more than one day (typically over two weeks), is not only about discount shopping. It is a psychological event carefully designed to make use of the way the brain makes decisions. Comparing product prices, characteristics, customer comments and affordability levels usually takes quite some time. Everything changes when we are under pressure. The brain lowers the amount of information it deems necessary before switching to action mode. In other words, the time pressure causes people to make up their mind faster and with fewer arguments to support their decisions.