site.btaMedia Review: July 29

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

The presidential election will be held on October 25, with a possible second round of voting on November 1, Bulgarian media report. This emerged after the floor leaders of the parliamentary groups met on Wednesday morning. The date is expected to be put to the vote in the National Assembly later this week. The rule is that a presidential election should be held between two and three months before the expiry of the incumbent's term of office. In this case, the term ends on January 22, 2027.

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In less than five days, incumbent President Iliana Iotova has completed two important laps ahead of her opponents as a presidential candidate for the 2027-2032 term, 24chasa.bg says in an editorial comment. First, she received support from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, expressed by its leader Krum Zarkov. Even more important for Iotova is the backing she got from Progressive Bulgaria, announced by its leader and Prime Minister Rumen Radev. This sealed her place in a possible run-off vote even though the other contestants are not known yet, the website says.

The centre-right players are critically late, the comment goes. It is quite obvious why they have been so slow. GERB wants a common candidate but Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria are reluctant to have one, and Radev has added fuel to their fire. The situation here can be described as "Once bitten, twice shy", but it is unclear whether strategy or tactic takes precedence.

Former caretaker prime minister Andrey Gurov has his running shoes on, but still hesitates (or acts as if he does), while Georgi Kandev, who was interim secretary general of the Interior Ministry under Gurov and is now tipped as Gurov's running mate as vice-presidential candidate, is set on deciding for himself when he will enter politics, and how. Law professor Daniel Valchev, former deputy prime minister and former minister of education and science, is waiting to be invited to the presidential race, but not by a political party. Whoever is nominated, she or he will have a lot of catching-up to do because Iotova has amassed political experience and has built up an image, which cannot be said of the (less-than)-well-known possible other candidates for president, the website says.

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The presidential race already has its first candidate, its first near-candidate and its first strategically silent candidate, ClubZ.bg says. What the three share in common is that they seek to project the same political image: to appear non-partisan, says the author, Emilia Milcheva. The paradox, she notes, is that no one can win a presidential election without the support of political parties. Party affiliations may be muted, but inevitably, the political DNA of each candidate will show, the writer argues. According to her, the three candidates so far, potential or real – Iliana Iotova, Daniel Valchev and Andrey Gurov – all have a political career. The analyst says that the upcoming presidential election will be more than choosing Bulgaria's next head of state. It will show whether the political majority who installed the Rumen Radev government will get control over the presidency as well. If this happens, the executive branch of power and the presidency will be concentrated around the same political centre for the first time since the democratic changes of 1989.

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In addition to the three prospective presidential candidates discussed so far in this Media Review, observers said on Wednesday on BNT1, the main channel of Bulgarian National Television, that former prime minister Nikolay Denkov may be another contestant in the race. Denkov was mentioned during BNT1's morning talk show in the context of the right wing's apparent difficulty in naming a single presidential candidate. Political scientist Stoycho Stoychev said during the programme that the forthcoming presidential campaign will not be a classical face-off between left and right, but between progressive and conservative values. "Common sense has no candidate," Stoychev said. He described Iliana Iotova and Andrey Gurov as representing "modern progressive thinking", while the conservative electorate has no single clearly recognizable figure to support yet.

DEFENCE

The Bulgarian Defence Ministry has made inquiries about the possible acquisition of used F-16 and JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft due to the delay of the delivery of a second batch of eight newbuilt F-16s from the United States, 24chasa.bg reports. The Ministry's statement came after a Polish government minister said that his country is ready to sell its MiG-29 fighters to Bulgaria if Warsaw and Kyiv fail to reach agreement in the coming weeks. The Defence Ministry noted that various options are being discussed to ensure uninterrupted implementation of NATO's air policing mission in Bulgaria.

The topic is also covered on MediaPool.bg, which notes that the Gripens are the news of the day, since second-hand F-16s have long been known as an option. The website recalls that in April 2017, Bulgaria came very close to buying newbuilt planes of the Swedish brand after the then caretaker government of prime minister Ognyan Gerdzhikov gave the green light.

ECONOMY

A parliamentary decision to abandon the formula which sets the minimum wage in Bulgaria at 50% of the average wage and to work out a new mechanism is discussed by economist Boyan Durankev in an interview with Trud.bg. Durankev says it is wrong and unethical to abandon the existing formula in the hope that the National Assembly will think of a better one someday. He argues: "The question is not whether the current formula is perfect. No formula is perfect. I think the existing formula is not flawless because it ties the minimum wage only to the average wage. The real question is whether the new method will be more predictable, more transparent and fairer. This question remains unanswered so far. The new formula is a state secret of the highest level, perhaps even the chief of the State Agency for National Security knows nothing about it."

Durankev sees a risk of setting a politically convenient level of the minimum wage first, and thinking of a formula to justify it later. He says good European practice suggests three criteria: the minimum wage should offset inflation completely, should increase at least at the pace of productivity growth and economic dynamics, and should be tied to the average wage, or rather the median wage.

The minimum wage system was also discussed on BNT1 on Wednesday morning. Lyuboslav Kostov, chief economist at the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, said during the programme that the latest changes in the Labour Code removed a key mechanism for negotiating the minimum salary. "Employers have taken away our last instrument […] Capital has defeated labour," Kostov said, calling on President Iliana Iotova to veto the provisions.

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A new rule of hourly calculation of length of service from January 1, 2027, will entail, among other things, shorter leave from work for many Bulgarians. The website SegaBG.com says that paid annual leave will become shorter for at least 238,051 people who work between four and seven hours a day, less than the legally established standard of eight hours. Another 66,219 part-time employees – those working between one and three hours a day – will remain unaffected because the duration of their leave is already shorter. The website has made the calculations based on information from the National Revenue Agency.

Interviewed by Bulgarian National Radio, Kremena Atanasova of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour said that an hourly employment contract puts off the time of retirement and reduces pay supplements for length of service and occupational experience. Podkrepa described the Labour Code amendments as a violation of workers' rights. On the employers' side, Bulgarian Industrial Association Vice President Maria Mincheva told the radio that part-time work does not necessarily conceal a violation of the rules. It may be an essential need for some working people and a preferred form of employment for others. Besides, an employer has no way of forcing an employee to accept a part-time working arrangement.

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The commercial shipping situation in the Black Sea has gone beyond predictable blockades towards highly unpredictable, asymmetrical risks, Dnevnik.bg says in a signed analysis. It notes that ships sailing in the Black Sea are faced with the dual threat of targeted air strikes and drifting naval mines. The current situation is assessed as one of the most dangerous over the four-plus years of Russian aggression against Ukraine. The author of the article, Petar Karaboev, says that prices of goods such as wheat and soybean, transported in the region, are rising.

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Individuals who have been unable to service their loans for more than a year, recently became entitled by law to file for personal bankruptcy, but the possibility remains only on paper, Dnevnik.bg says. This is due to the lack of a functioning register of insolvency, a system without which the courts cannot open and handle personal bankruptcy cases. Three months after the expiry of the deadline for setting up such a register, what the authorities have is a framework within which the facility should operate. The website has learned from the Justice Ministry that the official launch of the register is due this week. Only then will the system start working.

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Sofia Municipality is stepping up the development of bicycle infrastructure in the capital, the city's Deputy Mayor for Transport Viktor Chaushev told Radio Sofia, a local news service of Bulgarian National Radio. The design of cycling infrastructure has been accelerated, and the transition from design to construction is expected to become more rapid. New, higher bollards with reflective elements are being put up on central boulevards to prevent motor vehicles from entering the bike lanes, Chaushev said. Discussing the use of electric scooters and bicycles in public parks, he called for a revision of the Road Traffic Act, which does not currently regulate traffic in parks.