site.btaMedia Review: March 22

HEADLINES

The main topic of discussion on the Friday morning programmes of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), bTV, and Nova TV was the political rift between parliamentary parties Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and GERB-UDF. The Bulgarian National Radio has an interview with political scientist Lyubomir Stefanov, who is sceptical about the resolution of the power-sharing crisis. The topic is on the frontpages of 24 Chasa, Duma, Trud and the top story in Capital weekly. Telegraph has a page long analysis on the first inner page. 

Frontpage headlines include “Court annuls fast loan fees” in Trud, “Just 18% of the elderly can get over BGN 1,000 as pension” in 24 Chasa, “The free market will make electricity more expensive” in Duma, and “Sitting next to a younger driver will makes you responsible in case of a car accident” in Telegraph. 

ROTATION OF PRIME MINISTERS

Capital weekly’s top story is entitled “The bluffs of [GERB leader Boyko] Borissov. What are the scenarios for a way out of the political crisis”. The seven-page long analysis features three overarching themes: the crisis resolution scenarios, the amendments to the Judicial System Act, and the possibility of an unprecedented caretaker government.

The first part presents a chronological order of event starting February 27 until March 20. The article criticizes GERB-UDF for proposing a cabinet lineup without the decided names with CC-DB. Capital also presents two possible scenarios for a way out of the crisis: (1) snap parliamentary elections, and (2) renewing the negotiations for an agreement between GERB-UDF and CC-DB. The article reads that possible snap elections would be beneficial for GERB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), because the two parties control key regulatory bodies and the anti-corruption commission, and snap elections would delay reforms in the judicial system and the regulators. The article highlights that negotiations between CC-DB and GERB-UDF were happening without the participation of Borissov, while the leaders of CC-DB were in the party’s negotiating team. The article questions the weight of the decisions taken by GERB’s negotiating team. 

The second part of the analysis focuses on the reforms in the judicial system and the amendments to the Constitution. Capital writes that “Borissov and [MRF leader Delyan] Peevski, as well as CC-DB were aware that without a new Judicial System Act the voted constitutional amendments are a hollow shell. In other words - the real judicial reform is still to come.” The article highlights that, according to CC-DB’s Hristo Ivanov, GERB-UDF have sabotaged the negotiations, when they found out that Peevski will lose his usual decisive role in appointing staff in the judicial system. “In the years back, the Prosecution Office never noticed Delyan Peevski's involvement in corruption schemes, which was seen all the way from Washington, and all proceedings related to Boyko Borissov ended abysmally.” Capital notes that ”the adoption of a new judicial system act will launch the procedure for the election of the of the new Supreme Judicial and Supreme Prosecutorial Council, and thus a new Prosecutor General. The new rules (if adopted) will effectively reduce the influence of the established triumvirate GERB - MRF - Prosecution Office, hence the resistance of Borissov and Peevski, appears to be to the very end.”

The third part of the story considers the possibility of the appointment of a caretaker government by President Rumen Radev. In the event of snap parliamentary elections, Bulgaria will face an unprecedented situation, because of the sixth amendment of the constitution, which changed the appointment procedure of the caretaker cabinet and the institutional governance of the state until snap elections are held. The Presidential Administration has sent the Constitutional Court the texts of these provisions, but since it has not yet ruled, if it comes to elections, the appointment of the caretaker government will have to be done in the new way, since the constitutional changes are in force. There are a number of ambiguities in them that could lead to a procedural mess and, in the worst case, could even block elections, Capital says and broadly outlines two main reasons: (1) unclear texts written into the Constitution, and (2) the lack of specific legislation promised by the government to regulate the powers of the caretaker cabinet. The article describes the consequences of actions that need to be taken in the event of early parliamentary elections, concluding that “with a functioning parliament, a caretaker cabinet will be like a regular party cabinet and may even propose legal amendments for the MPs to vote on.”

Duma has an opinion piece on its frontpage by BSP party member Aleksandar Simov, who describes the situation as “soap opera”. 

The headline in 24 Chasa reads that Parliament is not voting on the cabinet proposal of Gabriel on Friday, because there is no deadline for when the voting should be done. The daily highlights that the Constitution does not oblige the Parliament to vote on a proposed government composition in a given time. The other highlight in the article is about the political appearance on television of CC-DB’s Lena Borislavova and GERB-UDF’s Raya Nazaryan.

24 Chasa also has an interview with former President Georgi Parvanov, who says that stable governance would be difficult without the support of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). Parbvanov also expresses uncertainty whether who s the more prominent representative of the oligarchy in Bulgaria between CC-DB and GERB-UDF.  

Trud highlights that Lena Borislavova wants Borissov to be part of GERB-UDF’s negotiating team. 

Telegraph notes that instead of negotiating the parties are setting newer and newer conditions for each other in order to reach an agreement. 

ENERGY & ECONOMY 

Mediapool.bg has an article on the cheap electricity prices in Bulgaria. The story bears the title “The ‘cheap electricity’ in the thievish state”. The article reads that for years, governments have postponed crucial decisions on the electricity market for they are unpopular and require reforms.

Until a decade ago, state-owned power plants mostly sold their electricity non-transparently, but after EU pressure, the Bulgarian Independent Energy Exchange started operating and today all electricity producers - nuclear power plants, thermal power plants, solar, wind farms, district heating companies - sell there. At the same time, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) holds blocked electricity quotas for households. These come from the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, the state-owned Maritsa East 2 thermal power plant and the two so-called American plants, AES Galabovo and ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3. Their prices are set by the energy regulator, along with those of network services. The bill for a monthly consumption of 200 kWh is below BGN 50, which is just over 3% of an average monthly salary of BGN 1,500. Mediapool says that “clearly, not everyone has such an income, especially the majority of pensioners”, which is why the European Commission has been insisting for years that Bulgaria adopt criteria for energy-poor consumers so that they can be adequately helped to cover their electricity and heating bills. 

Currently, the state budget gives less than BGN 550 to socially disadvantaged families for heating in winter, which can barely cover a bill and a half for the heating of a 60 square meter home with central heating. There are no compensations for electricity. 

On 21 March, Parliament obliged the budget to pour BGN 1 billion into the Electricity System Security Fund, arguing that there is no money in it to compensate for putting household electricity on the free market from July 1, 2024. The decision was introduced by GERB-UDF MP and head of the parliamentary committee on energy Delyan Dobrev. He announced that if this money is not provided, electricity will go up by BGN 0.03 per kilowatt hour, which will result in higher commodity prices, inflation, and a postponement of Bulgaria's eurozone accession.

For the aforementioned consumption of 200 kWh this is an increase of BGN 6, Mediapool writes, saying that the cost of a quarter kilo of cheese is higher. The article reads that all politicians think that if they don't promise that Bulgaria will have the cheapest electricity in the EC and will be a "net exporter of electricity" to the whole region, they will lose their electorate. And while at the top the battle is against the electricity going up by two or three cents for the people who will not feel much of such an increase, the state has for the most part refrained from helping the ones who are truly in need.

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Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) President Plamen Dimitrov told BNT that energy poverty in Bulgaria is apparent for between 25% and 40% of Bulgarians.

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The frontpage headline in Duma says that putting household electricity on the free market will raise its prices. The subhead reads that the Bulgarian Socialist Party has submitted a bill on delaying the procedure with another year. 

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Talking to BNR, Stoyan Panchev of the Expert Club for Economics and Politics said that Bulgaria’s euro changeover in 2025 seems impossible, considering the inflation criteria. According to him, the expected accession delay will be at least two or three years. He said that currently Bulgaria’s inflation criteria figures are worse than the previous time Bulgaria’s changeover was discussed. Panchev noted that there are many reasons for Bulgaria to not join the eurozone at the moment and one of them is the political crisis. According to him, the conclusions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concern structural problems in the country's finances - that there are accumulated deficits that will hardly be addressed with the current policies and GERB's criticism coincides with some of the conclusions of the IMF. “The problems of financial stability are brought to light, which for the sake of maintaining political peace were locked in a dark closet,” Panchev said.