site.btaMedia Review: July 25

No single issue dominates the news media on Friday. 

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT STILL DIVIDED ON CONSTITUTIONAL REVISIONS

Among the highlights is the failure of the Constitutional Court to reach the required majority to issue a ruling on the substance of a case challenging parts of constitutional amendments adopted at the end of 2023. The challenged amendments include the removal of the ban on dual citizenship for Member of Parliament; the introduction of the principle of continuity of the mandate of the National Assembly and individual MPs; and the procedure for forming a caretaker government, including the appointment of a caretaker prime minister from among a limited circle of office holders.

Mediapool.bg writes that the powers of the President to appoint caretaker cabinets “remain curtailed”. The statement by the Constitutional Court makes it clear that the judges nominated by Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and GERB were either against considering the challenge or took the position that the challenged provisions do not violate the Constitution. Desislava Atanasova (former MP from GERB) and Krasimir Vlahov (parliamentary quota, elected with support from GERB) believe that the constitutional amendments are not in violation of the Constitution. Borislav Belazelkov (nominated by CC-DB) and Orlin Kolev (nominated by GERB), on the other hand, hold the opinion that the challenge is inadmissible. They are joined by two constitutional judges elected on the quota of from the judiciary: Galina Toneva (Supreme Court of Cassation), who considers the challenge inadmissible, and Nadezhda Dzhelepova (Supreme Administrative Court), who believes there is no contradiction with the Constitution. Four judges appointed by President Rumen Radev – Atanas Semov, Yanaki Stoilov, Sasho Penov, and Nevin Feti – share the President’s position. According to them, having a limited scope of office holders eligible for election as a caretaker prime minister – rather than giving the President unlimited power to choose anybody he deems fit - contradicts the Constitution. Constitutional Court Chair Pavlina Panova and Judge Sonya Yankulova hold the same view, Mediapool says.

Since, according to the Constitution, a decision requires more than half of the votes, no ruling has been issued in this case.

Duma leads with the matter. In a story headlined “Constitutional Court Fails again to Rule on Household Registry”, it says that the court was a vote short of reaching the majority it takes to drop the provision that restricts the President’s rights. 

“Household registry” is widely used in popular parlance to refer to the circle of office holders qualifying for the position of caretaker prime minister. 

Duma also has a signed commentary by Alexander Simov in which he called the contested constitutional revisions “the most ill-advised, meaningless, stupid, flawed, and scheming amendments to the Constitution”. “Their goal was to tie the president's hands and to take over the institution of the caretaker government, but the result was tragic,” the author argues.

Dnevnik.bg points out that this is the court’s second attempt to rule on the texts, after last year, when it struck down most of the constitutional amendments as unconstitutional but ended up divided over the remaining provisions and failed to reach a decision on them.

Sega writes that the Constitutional Court remained split up on the issue of the caretaker prime ministers. 

HEAT WAVE AND DROUGHT 

Sega leads with water shortage in many parts of Bulgaria. The country is faced with scarce water resources for a second summer now and hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians are agonizing. At many places, the problem persists throughout the year and not only in the hot summer months, the story says. It goes on to catalogue some of the worst cases of depleted water sources, leaking water mains, inadequate infrastructure in general and incompetent authorities. The current water scarcity map prepared by the Green Movement shows 260 settlements with water rationing. There are likely more, as the data is submitted on a voluntary basis. This most likely means that at least 260,000 Bulgarians are experiencing water problems. Around 300,000 were affected by disrupted water supply in mid-August 2024 — and it is very much likely that number will be reached again in 2025, the story says. 

The morning programme of Bulgarian National Television had a piece about an increase of the areas in southwestern Bulgaria affected by wildfires. The 2025 fire season started about a month earlier than in 2024. According to Petko Angelov from the Southwest State Forestry Enterprise, large-scale fires in 2024 began after July 26, whereas this year they started as early as late June, with some covering over 120 ha and being difficult to contain. So far, there have been around 68 fire incidents, burning about 490 ha, with 57 ha of crown fires causing irreversible damage to forest vegetation. Last year at this time, there were about 63 fires, but they affected a smaller area of around 360 ha. 

The programme had a live report from Sredets where a fire in a storage facility for plastic waste on Thursday caused air pollution.

On the morning programme of bTV, climatology professor Georgi Rachev warned that temperatures may reach new highs in some parts of the country on Saturday. Having said that, he admits that these temperatures are far from the all-time highs of 54C in Plovdiv, 46C in Sandanski and 40.2C in Sofia.

ECONOMY, EURO CHANGEOVER

Capital Weekly has a story titled “Blizoperation Anti-Gouging”. It says that the government is rapidly pushing through expanded powers for the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) and the National Revenue Agency to combat price increases during the transition to the euro. The changes, which also include significantly higher penalties, have justifiably been criticized by the business community. While the stated goal is to deter dishonest traders, there are concerns that the provisions could easily become a tool for harassment and repression.

The paper quotes Peter Ganev of the Institute for Market Economics, who says that it makes no sense to revise the euro changeover law. “It is a fight for power – not for the consumers’ interests,” he argues.

***

Trud has an interview with Nikolay Kostov, President of the Association of Pharmacies, and the headline says that “a witch-hunt against pharmacies is underway because of the euro”. Kostov warns that pharmacies will be unable – for technical reasons that are out of their control - to meet the August 8 deadline for displaying prices in lev and euro. He also said that retailers are treated as potential criminals as the government is trying to prevent price gouging. “Inflation is not caused by speculative pricing - that has occurred temporarily in all countries that have adopted the euro. Usually, such inflation is insignificant. But we are under a currency board arrangement, the lev is pegged to the euro, and this will ease the transition,” he says.

***

In a Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) interview, Gabriela Rumenova from the We, the Consumers platform says that retailers should be encouraged to follow good practices rather than get punished. “Consumers must be the most active party. To a large extent, we can regulate the market through our behavior and our choices about where to buy. And when we have serious concerns about unfair practices, we should prompt the institutions to intervene. There are countless retail outlets, and the capacity of any state institution — not just in Bulgaria — is limited. It’s important to curb all unfair practices early on so they don’t multiply,” she said.

***

24 Chasa has an analysis about five benefits from an increase of the minimum wage, by Lyuboslav Kostov, chief economist of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria. “Raising the minimum wage (MW) in Bulgaria has shown consistently positive effects over the past 15 years, according to national statistics, he argues. First, higher MW boosts employment, as reflected in rising employment rates. Second, unemployment tends to decline or stay the same when MW increases. Third, rising MW drives consumption, fueling economic growth, with domestic demand being the main growth engine—not investment. Fourth, poverty and social exclusion risks decrease, as low-income earners see improved purchasing power. Fifth, income inequality shrinks, regardless of the measurement used, when MW rises.

***

In the morning programme of the Bulgarian National Television, social analyst Elena Darieva and political analyst Miroslav Sevlievski commented the backlash after the adoption of the euro adoption law in Bulgaria because of the measures planned against price gouging. “One of the main pillars of the rule of law is the market economy, and any unjustified interference in market mechanisms is extremely dangerous,” Darieva said. Sevlievski suggested that EUR 5 should be handed out to every pensioner and every student from grades 1 to 4 so they can see what the euro is. “This would cost around 4–5 million, which isn’t a lot of money, and it would be the best campaign for joining the eurozone,” he argued.

AI

The cover story of Capital weekly is “AI vs. Internet”. It is about how AI changes fundamentally the way people search on Internet. They get their searches answered by chatbots which leads to an alarming decline in traffic for content creators. The large media companies are seeking new ways to make the AI companies pay for the information.

The weekly has two editorial comments. One is titled “Is there a chief prosecutor in this country?” [a play on the Bulgarian translation of the title of the movie Airplane!, which would translate back in English as “Is there a pilot on the plane?”] and looks at the controversy over whether the acting Prosecutor General can keep his office after July 21 (as legislative amendments limit to six months the time period an acting Prosecutor General can perform these duties but the Prosecutors Chamber decided that this does not apply to the current acting Prosecutor General, Borislav Sarafov, as his appointment predated the adoption of the said legal revisions). But the comment only starts from there to end with the conclusion: “In Bulgaria, the law is trampled in a coordinated and institutionalized manner — by the parliament, the Supreme Judicial Council, regulators, the executive branch, and, sadly, by the courts and the prosecution. By the very same institutions which, in normal countries, are supposed to uphold the rule of law.”

The other editorial comment is headlined “We like concrete, not tents” and criticizes the government's latest attempt to regulate wild camping along the Black Sea coast, arguing that such efforts often serve business and municipal interests rather than nature lovers. The state is shifting responsibility to local authorities and tourism operators, who are unlikely to support low-cost camping due to limited resources or profit motives. Over time, wild campers have been pushed out in favor of luxury accommodations, and bureaucratic obstacles make proper regulation unlikely. While clear rules for camping in protected areas are necessary and common in other countries, Bulgaria’s long-standing tolerance of illegal construction and environmental violations makes these new regulatory attempts seem hypocritical and provoke backlash from environmental groups.

POLITICS

In a 24 Chasa interview, sociology professor Rumyana Kolarova says that no party would gain from early elections and each one of the parties in the current Parliament will lose at least 10% of the seats they now have. She says that the participants in the ongoing protests (for rule of law and against the backstage masters of the judiciary) are dreaming of forcing GERB leader Boyko Borissov to lose his temper as he did in 2013, and resign the GERB-dominated government. Kolarova believes that the Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition “is doomed in its current composition”; that a woman should replace Assen Vassilev as Continue the Change leader but this woman should not be Lena Borislavova; that the [future] party of the President will attract the votes of those disappointed with BSP, There Is Such a People – and even more of the disillusioned voters of Vazrazhdane, MECh and Velichie. 

***

In a Bulgarian National Radio interview, Andrey Yankulov from the Anti-Corruption Fund said that Bulgaria's anti-corruption efforts are largely superficial, targeting convenient areas while ignoring sectors where real corruption is likely — those managing large public resources. He expressed skepticism that the new nominations to the Anti-Corruption Commission will lead to meaningful change, calling hopes for reform overly optimistic. Yankulov disagrees that the anti-corruption commission could bypass or replace the prosecution service, noting that in practice, Bulgaria's prosecutors hold dominant power over investigations. He also highlighted systemic problems in the judiciary, where courts often act passively instead of exercising oversight. If the current trend of institutional decline continues, it could lead to wrongful convictions - a major failure for the justice system. The real solution, he said, lies in building truly independent institutions and ensuring the rule of law.

***

Capital Weekly has a story titled “The Opposition Has a Right to Be Decorative Only”. The piece reflects on the 2020 anti-government protests in Bulgaria, during which the state employed intimidation tactics—such as surveillance, police violence, and threats—yet ultimately refrained from full-scale repression. Now, in 2025, the author suggests that the conditions for a more forceful crackdown have returned. Power is increasingly consolidated in the hands of Boyko Borissov and Delyan Peevski, with Peevski now a central figure symbolizing the fusion of official and unofficial authority. Recent arrests in Sofia and Varna, along with efforts to overturn past local election results, signal a shift toward more authoritarian governance. Public opinion appears to no longer matter, and the government is positioning itself as effectively unremovable—with or without the use of force, says author Yoan Zapryanov. He also says: “In Bulgaria, an opposition exists and will continue to exist—with the right to sit in parliament, criticize those in power, organize protests, and complain. However, there are two key caveats: first, the opposition will not be allowed to actually govern; and second, all these rights can be revoked the moment the real power, embodied by Borissov and Peevski, decides they are no longer necessary.” Most opposition politicians don’t show much genuine desire to govern anyway, the author adds.

***

Dnevnik.bg carries a story titled “Where Is Dian Ivanov, the Key Witness against the Varna Mayor”. It says that former Varna deputy mayor Dian Ivanov, once considered a key witness against the arrested mayor Blagomir Kotsev, has disappeared from public view after publicly retracting his deposition, claiming that it was given under pressure. The Facebook post, in which he renounced his original statements, was later deleted, and he has since become unreachable. The prosecution has not clarified whether he has been re-interviewed, despite his legal obligation to testify again. Speculation is growing about his role in the case, possible legal consequences for him, and whether his absence may impact Kotsev’s detention and the broader investigation.

***

In the morning programme of Nova TV, former caretaker Justice Minister Krum Zarkov, who is also a former advisor to President Rumen Radev, comments a host of issues, including the Arrest of Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev, the status of the acting Prosecutor General, and the Constitutional Court’s failure to decide on contested constitutional changes. He criticized the arrest of Varna’s mayor, calling the pre-trial detention measure legally disproportionate. He argued that such detention is only justified if the accused poses a risk of fleeing or obstructing justice - unlikely in Kotsev’s case. Zarkov warned that punishing individuals before conviction creates a perception of political repression and could be seen as an attempt to remove Kotsev through judicial means.

Zarkov argues that Bulgaria effectively has no chief prosecutor, as Borislav Sarafov is improperly acting in that role. He criticized the Prosecutors Chamber for ignoring the law and failing to issue a formal decision, contrasting it with the Judicial College, which applied the law correctly in a similar case. He claimed this long-serving SJC is distorting the law to extend its mandate indefinitely and that Parliament’s inaction is complicit. Zarkov noted that the SJC may be waiting for a Constitutional Court ruling expected on September 30, which could allow it to elect a permanent chief prosecutor - a move he described as legally dubious and politically manipulative.

Zarkov described the Constitutional Court to reach an agreement regarding the constitutional revisions as “another blow to a key institution”, warning that the unresolved issue preserves a problematic mechanism that could lead to institutional deadlock during future political crises.

***

Duma gives prominent to a story headlined “BSP Starts Big Conversation on New Programme”. There isn’t much about the new programme in the story but it has some quotes of party leader Atanas Zafirov including one in which he says: "Ideology holds great importance for the left. This can be seen throughout the history and present of the BSP and the leftist movement in Bulgaria. It is precisely ideology that has helped the BSP survive both in the past and in today’s turbulent times."

SOCIETY

Capital Weekly has a piece titled “Punishing a Journalist for Doing His Job”. It says that a controversial decision by the Supreme Court of Cassation upheld a claim by Judge Svetlin Mihaylov against journalist Boris Mitov and the news site Mediapool. They were ordered to pay nearly 36,000 BGN for slander (a sum that was raised within two days by citizens supporting independent journalism). The ruling is a serious blow to media freedom, as it concerns publicly known facts and circumstances about the judge’s career that were merely reiterated in the article, argues author Polina Paunova.

***

24 Chasa leads with a story about tougher measures against traffic rule offenders. The headline says that one can reach from Sofia to Burgas by car in less than 3 hours but risks losing their driving licence for that. After amendments to the Road Traffic Act, parents will be fined BGN 500 if their under-18 child is caught riding a scooter. 

The topic was discussed by guests in the morning programme of bTV. According to one, Dimitar Iliev, former deputy head of the Road Safety Agency, the changes in the Road Traffic Act will have a positive impact. However, he believes these changes won’t solve the core issues behind road accidents. “Most fatalities happen on rural roads — during dangerous overtaking or crashes into trees. One in five victims is a pedestrian,” he noted. Iliev added that the new measures mostly affect highways, which are actually the safest roads. Still, he acknowledged some useful changes, such as allowing unmarked police cars to detect traffic violations.

***

Another story in Capital says that thousands of young Bulgarians neither study nor work. The main issue is the mismatch between education, job seekers’ preferences, and the available positions in the business sector, according to the story. The highest number of disengaged individuals are aged between 25 and 29. In the coming years, Bulgaria will see growing demand for AI specialists, cybersecurity experts, and engineers, according to Adecco.

THE WORLD

Trud has a commentary by Ilia Iliev titled “London Throws Europe Under the Bus Again”. It says that amid the intensifying conflict in Ukraine, Russia is gaining ground militarily, while President Zelensky faces domestic protests and weakening authority. His move to strip anti-corruption bodies of power, likely under Western pressure, has sparked backlash. The West, unsure how to handle Ukraine’s failing leadership, continues to support the war but appears increasingly fatigued. The article suggests that peace is unlikely and that the real war is between Russia and NATO. It criticizes the West -especially the US and UK - for using Ukraine as a proxy and warns that Europe is becoming a hostage to its allies’ geopolitical ambitions. The likely outcome, it argues, is a “Georgian scenario”: Ukraine left nominally independent but destabilized and drifting under Russian influence.