site.btaMedia Review: April 29

HEADLINES 

24 Chasa’s lead story reports that part of the staff shortage in Sofia’s public transport system will be addressed by hiring drivers from Uzbekistan. There are currently 125 vacancies in the municipal transport company, an improvement from last year’s deficit of 173. Bulgaria recognizes driver’s licenses issued by Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

In its top story, Duma writes that the Socialist group of BSP for Bulgaria in the Sofia Municipal Council has expressed support for Stoyan Bratoev, the longtime CEO of Metropolitan - the municipal company that operates the Sofia underground train service - who was recently replaced amid controversy. 

Trud quotes Jay Johnston, co-Managing Partner at Dalmatian Capital Management, as saying that Bulgarians tend to keep most of their savings in bank accounts, when they should consider investing in capital markets. Johnston spoke on Monday at the Investment Day 2025 forum, organized by the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The daily also cites data from the Bulgarian National Bank showing that household deposits in banks across the country exceed BGN 90.8 billion.

Telegraph reports on teenagers earning between BGN 4,000 and 6,000 while working in bars, restaurants, hotels, and shops in Bulgaria’s summer resorts. The daily cites data from the General Labour Inspectorate, which shows a rise in employment among people under 18.

POLITICS

Dnevnik.bg and 24 Chasa both feature extensive interviews with Bozhidar Bozhanov and Ivaylo Mirchev, who were elected co-chairs of the Yes, Bulgaria! party over the weekend. The party, one of the partners in the Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) coalition, held the vote after last June Hristo Ivanov resigned as leader of Yes, Bulgaria! because of the election result of the parties in the DB coalition.

Commenting on the fact that  this is the first time the party will be led by co-chairs, Bozhanov and Mirchev said that they have long worked as a team along with Nadejda Iordanova, who currently serves as the CC-DB floor leader, and Ivanov.

The co-chairs said that their intent is to strengthen the partnership with Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria within the DB coalition and to unify what they refer to as “the democratic right.” Their ultimate goal is to claim power when "we can become an unbypassable factor".

Asked whether they are open to cooperating with GERB leader Boyko Borissov, who has described DB as a more reasonable partner than CC, the co-chairs said that GERB are not genuine in their attempt to reach out and are “very dependent on [MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan] Peevski”. “Borissov broke off negotiations with us when it came to Peevski's influence in the institutions. We will believe that GERB are sincere when there are guarantees that they can free themselves from harmful influences,” the co-chairs said. They added that the government can count on support from them and CC for Bulgaria’s euro area entry and this country’s geopolitical orientation.

In its interview with Bozhanov and Mirchev, Dnevnik.bg highlights: “Borissov and Peevski may decide to keep the Cabinet to stop [President Rumen] Radev. If Peevski decides to prop it up for four years, none of the political forces involved will dare to bring it down.” They also warned of the possibility that Peevski could seek the role of prime minister, given “his influence over many political entities and the inability of their leaders to oppose him”.

On whether a split between DB and CC is possible, Bozhanov said that the CC-DB parliamentary group will remain united. “That is how we ran in the elections. Splitting up the group in the middle of a parliamentary term while in opposition would be completely short-sighted,” he noted.

Asked if the DB and CC could run separately in future elections while pledging to form a joint parliamentary group, Bozhanov said “all scenarios are theoretically possible”. As for the presidential race, he said the best strategy would be to back a strong, shared candidate - ideally chosen through a preliminary vote.

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Speaking on bTV's morning programme, former interior minister Kalin Stoyanov said that his predecessor Ivan Demerdzhiev had signed a "scandalous" last-minute amendment to a major public procurement contract for the development of a Bulgarian ID system that increased its cost by BGN 81 million. In Stoyanov's words, Demerdzhiev falsely claimed the contract was a prerequisite for Bulgaria’s entry into the Schengen area. Demerdzhiev has been charged with mismanagement worth BGN 1,482,218 committed in June 2023. 

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24 Chasa reports that political parties in the 51st National Assembly have received BGN 7.9 million in state subsidies since the beginning of the current parliamentary term. In nearly six months of work, the Parliament has passed just seven laws and three ratifications. GERB-UDF, the largest parliamentary group, has received the biggest share - BGN 2.2 million - followed by CC-DB with around BGN 1.2 million, Vazrazhdane with BGN 1.1 million, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning with over BGN 960,000, BSP–United Left with BGN 629,760, Democracy, Rights and Freedoms with BGN 622,436, There Is Such a People with over BGN 564,000, Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh) with more than BGN 382,000, and Velichie with over BGN 332,000.

ECONOMY

In an interview with Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), Nikolai Nikolov from the Bulgarian Association for People Management said that 25% of companies plan to reduce staff. He said that there is a slight increase in the April survey by the Bulgarian Employment Confederation compared to the previous report. Nikolov attributed the trend to business uncertainty, decreased demand from European and global partners and rising social insurance thresholds. Nikolov pointed to upcoming closures of coal-fired power plants, planned layoffs in the IT sector, which has struggled over the past year and a half, and declining automotive sales, especially of electric vehicles (EV). As a manufacturer of EV parts, Bulgaria may face further redundancies due to reduced orders. He added that while the country has around 250,000 vacancies - mostly for low-paid jobs - there are about 1 million people neither working nor seeking employment.

Also speaking on BNR, credit consultant Tihomir Toshev said that there has been a consistent increase in deposits since the 2009 financial crisis. While bank deposits in Bulgaria totaled BGN 22 billion at the time, they now exceed BGN 90 billion. Toshev also reported an increased demand for loans.

SOFIA'S METRO

On Tuesday, the Sofia Municipal Council will hold an extraordinary session requested by Save Sofia and CC-DB, with a single agenda item: the dismissal of the board of directors of Sofia Metropolitan. In an interview with Bulgarian National Television (BNT), CC-DB Municipal Councilor Simeon Stavrev claimed the recent the leadership change was aimed at stalling metro construction and paving the way for a more expensive public procurement process for new trains.

Speaking to Telegraph, Save Sofia Municipal Councilor Boris Bonev said the goal of Tuesday's meeting is to replace four out of five board members, while retaining Stoyan Bratoev.

CULTURE

Mediapool.bg quotes Petar Petrov, former director of the National Institute of Immovable Cultural Heritage, as warning that 85% of Bulgaria’s immovable cultural heritage is at risk, and that the country could lose half of it in the coming years. Petrov said that shortly after taking office in 2021, he conducted a nationwide assessment of cultural heritage sites - the first in 30 years. The findings revealed that 10% of these sites have already been irreversibly destroyed, 35% are on the verge of disappearing, and 40% are in good technical condition but their authenticity has been impaired. 

MIGRATION

Telegraph quotes Bulgarian MEP Elena Yoncheva, who wrote in a Facebook post on Monday that 3,843 unaccompanied children entered Bulgaria illegally and applied for asylum in 2023. Citing UNICEF data, Yoncheva added that while not all of the children were trafficked, it is highly likely that many were. According to Europol, more than 90% of migrants rely on traffickers to reach Europe. This trend is contributing to the overall rise in illegal entries into the European Union. In 2022, around 331,000 illegal border crossings were detected at the EU’s external borders - the highest number since 2016 and a 66% increase over the previous year. In 2023, by the end of September, approximately 281,000 illegal crossings had been recorded - an 18% rise compared to the same period in 2022.

GLOBAL ISSUES

In an interview with BNR, Milen Keremedchiev, former deputy minister of foreign affairs, said that the United States is not exerting enough pressure on Russia and President Vladimir Putin. In Keremedchiev’s words, Moscow is more interested in normalizing its bilateral relations with Washington than in pursuing concrete ceasefire negotiations over Ukraine. He noted that while Ukraine has made major concessions, Russia has not budged from its original demands.

Keremedchiev commented on a recent statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said that the US would consider in the coming week whether to continue mediating talks “or if it’s time to sort of focus on some other issues.” “I do not believe the US will walk away from these negotiations, it is just a threat,” Keremedchiev said. If they did, it would close Russia’s only path to a ceasefire deal that works in their favor, he noted, adding that the European Union’s peace proposal is still on the table and it is less favorable to Russia.

Keremedchiev also discussed Donald Trump Jr.’s visit to Bulgaria on Sunday for a business forum hosted by the crypto company Nexo and his meeting with GERB leader Boyko Borissov ahead of the event. Trump Jr. holds a key role in the US president's team. “Trump uses his son to handle unofficial visits that go under the media radar,” Keremedchiev said.

Trud and 24 Chasa, citing Tribune.bg, report that the meeting between Borissov and Trump Jr. lasted an hour and a half. Borissov was the only Bulgarian politician to meet with Trump Jr., and he did not attend the business forum itself. Although official details have not been released, Tribune.bg reports—citing unnamed sources—that the discussion centered on Bulgaria’s political landscape and the future of strategic geopolitical projects, and was unrelated to the business event.

EUROPE'S POWER OUTAGE

24 Chasa has a story headlined “Life in Spain and Portugal Brought to a Halt – ‘Rare Atmospheric Phenomenon’ Leaves Millions Without Power”. Quoting BBC, the daily says that a massive blackout left all of Spain and Portugal, as well as parts of France, Belgium, and Andorra, without electricity on Monday, adding that millions of Europeans were affected.

According to morning programmes on BNT and Nova TV, while power is gradually being restored across Spain and Portugal, the exact cause of the outage remains under investigation.

Speaking on bTV’s morning programme, Nikola Gazdov, Chairman of the Association for Production, Storage and Trading of Electricity, said the disruption is believed to be technical in nature, likely triggered by a climatic anomaly. “Right after the blackout, we saw that half the power generation and demand was met by renewables. Solar and wind plants in Spain helped prevent a total system collapse,” Gazdov said. He added that if Spain had as many batteries as Bulgaria will have in a year's time this kind of failure might have been completely avoided. Batteries could have acted as a buffer in those critical first minutes and allowed operators to respond more quickly, he said.

MISCELLANEOUS

Mediapool.bg reports on a controversial proposal by Ognyan Atanasov, mayor of the western town of Kyustendil, to amend the town’s spatial plan to allow the construction of a wind farm in the Osogovo Mountain, a project linked to a company associated with former Parliament chair Rositsa Kirova of GERB. The proposal has sparked public outrage, especially since Atanasov is a member of the Greens. The local municipal council is scheduled to review the proposal on Wednesday, with protests planned by environmental groups, tourism organizations, and civic associations on the same day.

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In an interview with Trud, Aleksi Kesyakov, the former head of Sofia’s traffic police, discusses measures needed to reduce road fatalities.