site.btaMedia Review: December 22

POLITICS

Trud covers the creation in Nessebar of the Treti Mart [March 3, Bulgaria's Liberation Day] Movement, whose founders describe President Rumen Radev as an informal leader, while Radev distances himself in advance from similar formations. Political scientist Pervan Simeonov says on bTV the new formation looks like “something between a toxic doppelganger and a misleading manoeuvre” and notes that, while Radev has several possible political “landing strips”, this option does not look the best. Simeonov argues that the key question is whether Radev will act now, while public momentum is strong, or wait, adding that “Bulgaria is entering a difficult financial period – there simply isn’t any money.”

Simeonov argues that the next parliament is likely to be highly fragmented and conflict-prone, with tough decisions ahead on amendments to the Electoral Code, judicial reform, and interim governance arrangements. He says the protests reflect a genuine civic impulse, especially among young people mobilized via social media, but notes that protest momentum does not always translate into electoral gains for the expected political force, citing 2020, when the strongest result went to There Is Such a People (TISP). Simeonov adds that Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) may benefit as the political home of the protests, yet the space in the centre and centre-left remains open, giving Radev room to position himself without direct confrontation. He also notes the possibility of issue-based majorities and a process to roll back Peevski’s influence [limiting or dismantling the informal influence of Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Chair and MRF – New Beginning Leader Delyan Peevski over institutions and decision-making].

***

Bulgarian National Television (BNT), Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), bTV and Nova TV reported that President Rumen Radev said the Treti Mart Movement has nothing to do with him or the presidential institution, responding to questions after the newly forming party describes him as its informal leader.

In a statement to the media, Radev recalled that in early November he said: “The Treti Mart Movement, the movement for a presidential republic, and any related offshoots have no connection to me or to the presidential institution. Individuals who present themselves as organizers of my party and solicit or collect money in my name are fraudsters and proxies of the oligarchy.”

***

Trud carries comments by ABV leader Rumen Petkov, part of the BSP-United Left coalition and a former interior minister, after he appears on Nova TV.

Petkov says the authorities have shown “insufficient competence and effectiveness in addressing price rises” and have taken “several arrogant steps” that have fuelled public anger. “People have protested over the years for many reasons,” he says, adding that “the most recent protests are large-scale.” Petkov stresses that “a protest should not be hijacked” and warns that “when peaceful protest is obstructed, it becomes impossible to stop non-peaceful protest.” He says BSP–United Left expects to take the biggest political hit for supporting the government and that the coalition must quickly address communication failures, citing “the inability to explain what has been achieved.”

He adds that BSP–United Left should also clarify in advance its differences with GERB–UDF and There Is Such a People (TISP), including how policies and decisions are framed and communicated. Petkov says talks are continuing within BSP ahead of an important plenum, as well as within the BSP–United Left coalition council.

***

Trud covers an interview of GERB-UDF MP Toma Bikov on Nova TV, saying Parliament Chair Raya Nazaryan is unlikely to accept a caretaker PM appointment because “that means leaving political life,” and noting she is on the President’s menu of options for caretaker PM. [The pool of potential caretaker prime ministers from which the President may choose is limited to the Chair of the National Assembly, the Governor or Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, the President or a Vice-President of the National Audit Office, and the National Ombudsman or a Deputy Ombudsman.]

Bikov predicts no 121-seat majority after elections and calls the President’s consultations “formal.” He says Denitsa Sacheva tells Rumen Radev he can form a party and compete, and he accuses Radev of turning the presidency into a political player: “It is like the referee awards the penalties and then takes them himself.” Bikov says “no one wins 121 MPs,” even with a Radev project, warning of further elections.

On budget-sector wage indexation, Bikov calls the measure unlawful, says the cost is unclear at EUR 80 million–EUR 120 million, and adds GERB-UDF backs it to avoid being blamed for blocking income rises.

***

Nova TV aired a discussion on whether the political landscape stayed fragmented or shifted with new players, with PR expert Diana Damyanova saying Rumen Radev either “listens to CC-DB and waits until spring for early elections,” or keeps wavering, adding that “the country rose up against Peevski, and [GERB Leader Boyko] Borissov is cutting that link.” Damyanova said “4-5 attempts for new political projects” were under way, with voters sensing “a vacuum on the right” and an anti-corruption direction, while low turnout would reproduce the current picture.

Journalist Ruzha Raycheva said a Radev party could pull votes from BSP and Vazrazhdane, and possibly MECh and Velichie, but added it would be riskier to move now.

Political scientist Daniel Smilov said time was running out, warning that resignation would imply a project was prepared inside the presidency, while staying would disappoint supporters, and that a Radev project could lean either against the Borissov–Peevski model or on EU-Ukraine stances with fewer allies.

***

Trud features BSP-United Left MP and former National Assembly chair Nataliya Kiselova on Nova TV two years after constitutional changes backed by CC-DB with GERB-UDF and MRF. Kiselova said BSP opposed elections “every few months” and defended joining the government as talks “even with ideologically incompatible parties” to stabilize politics.

Kiselova said BSP-United Left governs with GERB-UDF and TISP, while MRF-New Beginning supports different actors by topic. She linked the resignation to rising public tension and “a lack of sensitivity,” saying partner imbalance and media quarrels fuel hard-to-control processes.

Kiselova called BSP “the most democratic party,” warned Parliament’s tone was different, and said, “We are not objective as a society when we divide MPs into good and bad.” She called the President’s menu of options for caretaker PM a mistake, noting BSP – United Left challenged it at the Constitutional Court but the Court did not strike it down.

***

Mediapool.bg quotes CC-DB MP Elisaveta Belobradova on BNT saying “the big question is how many people on the menu of options Delyan Peevski controls,” and that President Rumen Radev should nominate a caretaker prime minister with the fewest possible dependencies on Peevski. She said CC-DB treats Radev only as an institution until his status changes and rejected “household gossip and conjecture.”

Belobradova says Radev should appoint a strictly caretaker cabinet that does not commit Bulgaria to billion-scale contracts, with a single task of taking the country to elections. She called for a right-leaning budget, public administration reforms and Electoral Code changes with 100% machine voting to curb vote buying.

***

24 Chasa features GERB-UDF deputy floor leader Denitsa Sacheva on bTV saying Bulgaria is unlikely to have a regular budget “probably until September 1,” because “the mathematically possible collides with the politically impossible.” She said the draft reflects all supporting parties’ demands and added, “If GERB drafted the budget on its own, it would not look like this,” while conceding communication failures and warning that without a regular budget the problems people feel “will be truly serious.” She said Assen Vassilev should take responsibility for urging the budget not to be adopted.

Sacheva said the cabinet fell as “the government’s hyper-ambition has collided with the opposition’s hyper-populism,” dismissed President Rumen Radev’s consultations as theatre and said she went alone because “there is no need for a choir.” She said Parliament Chair Raya Nazaryan would not accept a caretaker PM role and called the menu of options inappropriate, adding that GERB-UDF wants paper voting to remain with machine counting.

***

24 Chasa features former President Georgi Parvanov (2002-2012) on BNT saying, “As much as I look around, I cannot see that leader who will take the country on a new path.” He said leadership development in Bulgaria stalled long ago, cited past figures from the transition and argued that while EU membership met a formal goal, Bulgaria still did not sit “as equals with the European peoples,” adding that Europe also lacked standout leaders.

Parvanov says Bulgaria’s purpose blurred after signing the EU Accession Treaty in 2005, and he criticised the current North Macedonia approach as reduced to adding 3,500 Bulgarians to the constitution, warning Skopje would likely seek recognition of a so-called North Macedonia minority.

He says snap elections had become routine, urged the President to “do the job” by appointing a caretaker cabinet, and called for scrapping the menu of options for choosing a caretaker PM. He labelled the left’s time in government “unsatisfactory,” said BSP’s voice was not heard clearly and called for changes ahead of the vote.

***

bTV aired remarks by former agriculture minister Mehmed Dikme, one of the founders of MRF, who said the first months of 2026 would be “highly critical” as inflation rose while there was no adopted budget. He said “there is no such thing as an extension budget,” arguing the State should operate on 1/12 of the previous year’s budget, and warned that lack of a budget deprived municipalities of investment and people of wage indexation. He said Peevski and MRF took the right stance “in the interest of the people” by letting the budget be considered.

Dikme said he joined the main protest to “take the pulse” and called it “the biggest protest since 1996,” adding it was not paid and was hard to control, with young people rejecting the status quo. He said Borissov “made the wisest move” by resigning and “minimized the damage” to GERB and said Peevski did “many positive things” and “will go down in history as the man who replaced Dogan,” while warning that Peevski was making enemies by seeking to dismiss people based on second-hand allegations rather than building alliances.

Dikme said Borissov would effectively shape the next caretaker PM choice because most of the menu of options consisted of GERB figures, and he warned of a constitutional crisis if all eligible nominees refused.

***

Duma reports comments by BSP-United Left leader and outgoing deputy prime minister Atanas Zafirov on Nova TV saying “no one should deny what BSP-United Left achieved” in government, adding that he backed the party’s officials, MPs and ministers and heard no criticism of BSP-United Left ministers’ work.

Zafirov said the January 10, 2026 National Council date was practical and rejected parallels with January 10, 1997. He said resigning as BSP chair would deny the past year’s work, made election preparation the priority and warned that anyone pursuing another scenario “works against BSP,” while resignations should follow election results.

Zafirov said joining government was the right choice because it stopped an elections cascade and gave the State breathing space, adding that “those who push the country into new elections will still bear responsibility.”

***

Dnevnik publishes an opinion piece by Spas Spasov, head of the outlet’s Varna bureau, under the headline Welcome to the panopticon: Peevski’s television theatre.

Spasov opens by quoting Otto Kernberg’s line that malignant narcissism includes sadistic behavior aimed at destroying moral integrity and argues that [MRF Chair] Delyan Peevski’s latest public spectacle fits a pattern of “shared stigma” and “narcissistic trauma” that drives a person to project their flaws onto others and to engineer situations that turn targets into replicas or lookalikes.

Spasov writes that Peevski personally escorts accredited parliamentary reporters into Todor Zhivkov’s former office and invites them to film “wardrobes, bidets – everything,” but first shows them a “museum of the coalition,” featuring cardboard cutouts of [CC Chair] Assen Vassilev and former CC-DB leaders, Turkish coffee and lokum, stacks of jointly signed draft bills, and a TV airing a leaked recording of a party meeting.

Spasov notes that the tour lasts 3 minutes and 46 seconds, during which Peevski addresses the reporters five times as “colleagues”. “Colleagues, please come in,” “Good afternoon, colleagues,” “Thank you, colleagues.” Spasov argues that this is a calculated effort to blur the boundary between subject and observer and to draw the press into the spectacle. He labels the tactic “sucking in,” contending that it is designed to compel association and “contaminate” the public image of both political opponents and journalists in a media environment that, he says, Peevski helps shape through control, insinuation, and intimidation, while emphasizing that not all journalists are “colleagues,” least of all with Peevski.

***

Dnevnik publishes an analysis by the Institute for Development of the Public Environment on the Open Parliament platform, arguing that MPs’ absences and poor discipline contribute to the mass disapproval of the National Assembly. It notes chronically low trust, with approval at 8% at the start of the legislature and 5% in early December, and links this to delayed organization of parliamentary work, weak dialogue, scandals, poor-quality debate and visible verbal aggression in the chamber.

The analysis reports that, from January to November 2025, unexcused absences totalled 946 from plenary sittings and 136 from committee meetings. It notes that the rules require MPs to attend and to give prior notice of any absence but argues that a notification-only regime produces no publicly available data on excused absences. The analysis suggests that publishing excused absences and narrowing the permissible grounds would improve transparency. It also highlights October as an example of deliberate obstruction of parliamentary work, when MPs boycott registrations and many committee meetings after GERB leader Boyko Borissov calls on the group not to register.

By parliamentary group, Vazrazhdane records the highest number of unexcused absences, 392 from plenary sittings and 52 from committee meetings, followed by GERB-UDF with 41. On disciplinary measures, Vazrazhdane has received 28 reprimands and 3 censures; MECh has received 13 reprimands; and Vazrazhdane’s leader has received 9 reprimands and 1 censure, while GERB-UDF, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF), and Velichie have received none.

The text notes that unexcused absences and removals from sittings may lead to pay deductions and sets out the remuneration formula: a base monthly salary of BGN 7,986 (three times the average public-sector wage of BGN 2,662 as of end-September 2025) plus BGN 5,324 in expenses, with additional supplements for leadership and committee positions.

ECONOMY

Trud covers comments by GERB MP and Budget and Finance Committee chair Delyan Dobrev on BNT’s Panorama saying “the ambition to deliver both a major income increase and, a large investment programme beyond the capacity of the tax system” drives the budget problems and political crisis.

Dobrev said several drafts were discussed in about a month. He called the first “the most unsuccessful,” saying it pursued sharp income rises and a large capital programme, and that “the deficit can be kept at 3% only by raising taxes.” He said GERB was ready to back a second budget draft with no tax rises, a smaller capital programme and 10%–15% income rises.

On the extension law, Dobrev said it offered no real pay rises and left only a hard-to-apply indexation clause, meaning “people would likely receive about 3.5%.” He said there were no immediate risks to financial stability or joining the single currency, shared blame for the failed budget across the coalition, cited progress toward the single currency and named OECD membership as the remaining major Euro-Atlantic goal, while warning that similar election results could trigger another elections spiral.

***

24 Chasa covers an interview on bTV with former foreign minister Solomon Passy, where he says joining the euro area makes Bulgaria part of “the brain of the European Union” and describes it as “a strategic and civilizational choice” that puts the country at the centre of decision-making.

Among his proposals, Passy suggests that Bulgaria nominates Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev for president of the European Central Bank.

“My profession is to draw conclusions,” Passy says, recalling times when his ideas look impossible, including calls for Bulgaria to join NATO and efforts to join the European Union, and he links those moments to Bulgaria’s full place in the euro area.

Passy describes his office as an archive of Bulgaria’s recent history, lined with photographs of the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Margaret Thatcher, and images of the signing of Bulgaria’s EU accession treaty and the raising of the Bulgarian flag at NATO headquarters.

One emblematic example Passy points to is the inclusion of Cyrillic script on euro banknotes. “Twenty-two percent of the characters on euro banknotes are Bulgarian. This means that a nation representing only 1.5% of the EU’s population is represented fifteenfold,” Passy says. He adds that this makes the euro the most widely circulated printed text in Cyrillic, with nearly 30 billion banknotes in circulation.

SPORT

Mediapool quoted Bulgarian Olympic Committee Secretary General Danail Dimov, who says that Bulgarian sport follows a “captured state model” and that the crises in the federations “have the same centre.”

“The goal is clearly to steal money and exert influence,” Dimov says, adding: “In the prosecution service, the judiciary, the tax authorities, and the executive branch, we see a captured-state model at work.”

Dimov says the latest Sofia City Court ruling overturning Vesela Lecheva’s election as chair of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee has not been sent to Lecheva’s team and claims that “the media work better than the Sofia City Court.”

“After reading the judge’s reasoning, I can once again say this is an unlawful decision. It contains glaring errors,” Dimov says, adding that the ruling has been appealed. He describes the situation as an abuse of the law and argues that identical lawsuits should not yield different decisions under the same facts.

Dimov adds that the court saga is intended to keep Stefka Kostadinova in office longer and claims: “No matter how many judges are bought, Kostadinova has been crossed off by the International Olympic Committee as chair of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee.” He draws a parallel with the weightlifting federation, noting that legal challenges followed Asen Zlatev’s election, and adds that the three complaints were filed by clubs represented by the same attorney: “the Bulgarian Olympic Committee’s lawyer, Ms Zlateva”.

Asked whether Delyan Peevski is behind Kostadinova and the disputes, Dimov says: “Peevski hasn’t called me,” and added that he hears talk of “people with nicknames” and warning: “This will all end tragically.”

SOCIETY

Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) aired an interview with attorney Zlatka Stefanova, in which she discussed press freedom, SLAPP lawsuits, and how shortcomings in the justice system fuel public anger. Stefanova said that whenever she watches or reads investigative journalism, her first thought is “how to defend the journalist.”

She described freedom of expression as both the right to impart information and the public’s right to receive it, noting that it may be limited when weighed against privacy or national security.

Stefanova said most cases brought against journalists focused on insult and defamation, and cited examples she described as SLAPP suits, arguing they were intended to intimidate reporters and financially exhaust media outlets, including by freezing accounts. She said the Strasbourg court examined whether the subject was of public interest, whether sources were official, and whether the publication contributed to public debate, adding that journalists were entitled to use sharper, even sarcastic, language.

Stefanova said Bulgaria needed national safeguards beyond the EU’s cross-border rules and suggested measures such as requiring claimants to post security. She warned that “bad work by the justice system means a defeated people,” and said efforts to marginalise critical journalists created a chilling effect, while protests and internal resistance from judges remained grounds for hope.

***

Dnevnik publishes an article on whether Bulgarian schools meet artificial intelligence, built around a World Bank report on AI and school education and comments by Albena Spasova, an adviser on the report and chair of EdTech Bulgaria. Spasova says school education sits “a step ahead” of much of Central and Eastern Europe on infrastructure and devices but stays at the back of the queue on skills for working in a digital environment, with Bulgaria placed in the third tier on a four-level readiness scale.

Spasova says the skills gap affects both students and teachers: students scroll confidently but often take in information without critical thinking, while a small number of teachers deliver strong, practical outcomes and a larger share remains cautious about the digital environment. She adds that strategies set ambitious goals, but a “big gap” opens between “huge funds” allocated for training and equipment and what happens in classrooms, due to weak implementation and limited systematization.

The article cites a 2025 survey of 146,311 teachers showing that 70% are familiar with AI applications, with around half experimenting, mainly with chatbots, to create lesson plans, learning materials, and tests, led by teachers under 40. Students use AI tools, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and INSAIT BgGPT, primarily to have lessons explained in simpler language, while school leaders and administrators apply AI to data management and routine administrative processes. Although investment programmes provide devices and platforms, the report finds that digital literacy remains weak, particularly in advanced competencies such as online safety, information literacy, and problem-solving, and notes that access to devices alone does not develop deeper skills.

Spasova warns that unskilled use of AI can make children mentally “lazy” and calls for a pedagogical framework, while noting that the evidence linking digital technologies to cognitive difficulties remains limited and largely correlational. The article highlights inequalities affecting rural, Roma, and disabled students, uneven internet access, inconsistent teacher training, and the debate over phone bans. Spasova says bans can improve concentration but that “people ban when helpless,” and she prefers purposeful integration in the classroom.

DEFENCE

Telegraph says Bulgaria receives its first eight F-16 Block 70 fighter jets, officially presented at Graf Ignatievo Air Base. Major Todor Todorov, one of the Bulgarian F-16 pilots, describes the aircraft as “a great platform that brings new and unfamiliar capabilities” to the Air Force. Todorov adds that he is pleased “the final two of the eight F-16s are now on Bulgarian soil.”

Telegraph adds that that the final two aircraft under the contract with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics landed on December 16, completing the first batch. The jets initially arrived bearing US Air Force markings, replaced with Bulgarian insignia after landing. The delivery marks a new phase in combat aviation modernization and that, for the first time, Bulgaria is guarding its airspace with Western-made fighters. The daily adds that a second delivery of eight additional aircraft is expected to complete a full F-16 Block 70 squadron.