Bulgarian Press Review, April 1, 2010

Press Review

Sofia, April 1 (BTA)


THE HOME SCENE
The defeated motion in Parliament for opening a procedure for the impeachment of President Georgi Purvanov is the most commented topic in the Thursday press. The vote was 155 in favour (6 short of the two-thirds majority required for passage of the motion), 72 against, and no abstentions.
“Order, Lawfulness and Justice Party Leader Yanev Reverses Impeachment,” runs the headline of a front-page report in “24 Chassa” which notes that Order, Lawfulness and Justice (OLJ) party leader Yane Yanev decided at the last moment to withdraw his party’s support for the motion. Yanev said that his party will not take part in this “farce” since, according to the OLJ leader, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov replaced the motives for the impeachment, turning the debate in a vote of confidence in the government. Yanev demanded Borissov’s resignation and said that OLJ has a plan for toppling the cabinet which will be announced at the end of April.
Social analyst Kuncho Stoichev tells “Troud” that by deciding to move the proposal for opening a procedure for the President’s impeachment Borissov created more unnecessary enemies for himself. Stoichev says that with the debate of the impeachment motion politics was once against displaced by political intrigues. According to Stoichev, Borissov fell victim to a personal illusion which has befallen many a leader in history - this is the illusion that when at the peak of power one thinks that the gravest mistake is the absence of enough power which thus makes the person clean space around him/herself in order to win more power. In the end, Borissov won more enemies, which, Stoichev says, was totally unnecessary since at the present moment Bulgaria needs a successful term of office of the incumbent cabinet. The wasting of social and political resources is even more unnecessary and harmful for the country, Stoichev concludes.
“Pari” writes that the defeated impeachment motion means that the serious debate about the President failed to take place so that Purvanov emerges as the winner. After some time, everyone will remember nothing but the failed impeachment procedure. Even Yane Yanev, who reversed his position, will not be remembered as the culprit for the failed impeachment, says the daily.

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All of the April 1 newspapers write about the arrest of the Chairman of the Municipal Council of Varna (on the Black Sea), Borislav Goutsanov, who was detained Wednesday on suspicions of fraudulent transactions which caused damage to the city’s transport and the municipal budget. So far police have arrested four persons in the operation codenamed Medusa (Jellyfish):
Goutsanov, a man identified as D.S., known as Dido “The Jean”, Municipal Road Transport Director Pencho Penchev and the Public Transport company’s chief financial officer Ioanna Dimova. Another individual, a citizen of the Netherlands, is wanted for involvement with the crime ring.
Six charges were pressed against the detainees, “Troud” writes, saying that they concern three deals closed by the Varna Public Transport company between 2003 and 2007 for the purchase of recycled buses from France and Germany worth about 2 million euros. Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told journalists that just one third of that amount was paid to the seller, while the remainder ended up in the accounts of individuals he did not name. The four detainees have been charged with participating in a crime ring for malfeasance in office, said district prosecutor Vladimir Chavdarov. They also face charges of mismanagement, gross embezzlement, issuing false documents and instigation to perjury.
“Operation Jellyfish targets corruption in the local power and is not politically motivated,” Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov is quoted as saying.
Socialist Party leader Sergei Stanishev said Goutsanov’s arrest was “the latest political order”. High-profile police operationsare carried out daily and it is no chance that this is happening on the same day as the debate on the impeachment motion against President Georgi Purvanov, Stanishev said, quoted by the press.

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The Thursday newspapers report on the sitting of the Sofia City Court which examined an appeal by Former State Agency for National Security (SANS) officer Alexei Petrov against the precautionary measure securing his appearance. After a sitting which went on for 10 hours, the Court ruled that Petrov and another detainee arrested in Operation Octopus, Marchelo Djotolov, are to remain in custody.
“Monitor” says that three new charges were pressed against Petrov at the Wednesday sitting of the Court: for disclosure of a state secret, racketeering and extortion.
Petrov, who was adviser to then SANS Chairman Petko Sertov until August 2009, and 13 other persons were arrested on the night of February 9 to 10 in an operation codenamed “Octopus”. They were charged, as an organized crime allegedly headed by Petrov, with blackmailing, forcible debt collection and racketeering, inducement to prostitution, drug pushing, influence trading, money laundering, concealment of income, tax evasion and fraudulent recovery of VAT input tax. On February 19 the appellate court released five of the detainees and left only Petrov and Djotolov in custody. They had appealed the measure.

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Commenting the resignation of Health Minister Bozhidar Nanev and its acceptance Wednesday by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, “ 24 Chassa” says that the Prime Minister expressly told Nanev not to by the antiviral medicines for which he was charged with intentional conclusion of an unprofitable transaction representing a particularly grave case and inflicting damage of a particularly large amount, nearly 2.5 million leva.
In a comment in “Troud” headlined “Scapegoat, Thief or Next Victim of the Healthcare Reform,” social analyst Kolyu Kolev comments that Nanev was a “foretold victim” - a person with too many enemies and no allies. According to Kolev, Nanev’s mistake was that he believed himself that he will be allowed to carry out the reform in the health sector. Such a step - to close the money tap of doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies which have attached themselves leech-like to the healthcare system, is doomed to failure from the very beginning, Kolev says. This is a huge power that will crush any minister, he says. The social analyst predicts that GERB will not lose from Nanev’s resignation but the healthcare reform will be stalled.

ECONOMY
The other most commented topic in the Thursday press is the package of anti-crisis measures approved by the cabinet.
“Cabinet Decides to Tackle Crisis without Making Reforms” caps a report in “Standart News”, noting that privatization and sale of greenhouse gases are the important measures to shore up the 2010 budget. The measures are expected to fetch nearly 1,600 million leva in aggregate. However, many experts think that the planned revenue has been overestimated, and expenditure, rather big, so that the effect on the public purse is dubious. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov was not optimistic about the budget and implied that the VAT may have to be upped, after all.
“Sega” comments that the crisis will be there for much more time but not so reforms and lists several significant shortcomings in the anti-crisis package of the government, trade unions and employers. In the first place, the plan continues to have too many question marks and unknowns. The plan promises that by June 30 public procurement contractors will get their overdue payments but it is not known where the hundreds of millions of leva needed for this will come from by that time. The second shortcoming is that the measures are too general. Next, it is not clear who is responsible for them. The author of the comment says that on the whole, the combination of ideas triggers mixed feelings. Some of the ideas are good, others, unclear, some additionally burden the budget instead of filling its gaps, still others bear no relation whatsoever to the most critical months.
Three experts comment in “24 Chassa” the 60 steps against the crisis endorsed by the cabinet. Banker Emil Hursev says that with the approved package of measures, all chances to overcome the budget deficit are there. Luchezar Bogdanov of the Industry Watch think thank says that the most significant measures require the most difficult decisions. For example, proceeds from privatization can come provided that the cabinet shows will and sells participating interests owned by the state despite the pressure against the privatization coming from different lobbies. Former labour minister Ivan Neikov says that the measures require at least 25 legal amendments, so that the ball now is in Parliament which will have to act swiftly. Naikov says that much hope is pinned on the sale of CO2 emission but warns that Bulgaria has no experience in this and it is not clear whether the administration is ready.
“Dirty Air, Land to Fill Budget” caps an interview with Deputy President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria Plamen Dimitrov in “Triud”. He dwells on four of the 60 measures expected to bring proceeds to the budget. The first is the sale of greenhouse gas emission units under the Kyoto Protocol, expected to fetch 500 million leva. Another 450 million leva are expected to come from spending cuts in the state-financed sector. The privatization of minority residual shareholding in companies through the Bulgarian Stock Exchange is expected to bring 250 million leva. Putting up to 90,000 ha of land for long-term lease with pre-paid rent and sale of 10,000 ha at public auctions should fetch 164 million leva.
Interviewed by “24 Chassa” former finance minister Plamen Oresharski says he sees the end of the 12 years of financial stability. Oresharski describes the cabinet’s measures not as anti-crisis but as measures to save the budget which will have a pro-crisis impact on the economy. “The negative effects on the real economy are a fact. Since the second half of 2009 they multiplied and together with the external causes now there are local ones as well which aggravate the crisis,” he says.
FOREIGN POLICY
“Sega” runs a comprehensive interview with United States Ambassador to Sofia James Warlick who says that the Bulgarians are fed up with corruption and crime. The Ambassador says that there have been arrests of various persons suspected of being involved with organized crime. However, things do not end here, he says. Now it is the turn of the judiciary which has to guarantee that there is fair administration of justice, the
diplomat says. The judiciary now has to assume its responsibility and do so that those who are guilty are convicted and sent to prison. Ambassador Warlick voices a hope that the Bulgarian institutions will emerge stronger after the debates on the motion to open a procedure of impeachment against the President. PG /ZH/

Links to some Bulgarian info websites in English:

http://www.bta.bg/site/en/indexe.shtml
http://www.novinite.com/index.php
http://www.focus-fen.net/


Most discussed topics of the day – April 1, 2010


· The number of unemployed people declined by 4,000 in March, according to Employmen Agency statistics made public by the Labour Ministry Thursday. This has been the first time in the past one-and-a-half years that their number is dropping. The unemployment rate was 10.14 per cent. Over 375,000 jobless were registered with the job centres in March.

· Former Defence Minister Nikolai Tsonev has been arrested, investigative sources told BTA. News of the arrest came shortly after the reported arrest of a judge in Sofia City Court, Peter Santirov, who allegedly asked a payoff to secure a favourable outcome for a case in which Tsonev is a defendant. Tsonev was Defence Minister from April 2008 to the end of the previous government’s term in the summer of 2009. On November 20, 2009, he was charged with official malfeasance in connection with the purchase of a mobile hangar-making plant and with effecting a dubious transaction for the purchase of aircraft materiel, which resulted in a detriment to the Exchequer of 8,025,825.45 leva. Also on Thursday, police arrested the former chief secretary of the Finance Ministry, Tencho Popov, in connection with the same case.


· Bulgaria’s President, Georgi Parvanov, will support the cabinet in their package of anti-crisis measures despite some disagreements.The statement was made by Parvanov during his Thursday meeting with the Initiative Committee that nominated him for the Head of State post.The President pointed out that in the conditions of an economic crisis the collaboration among institutions is a must in order to successfully apply the measures, adding that currently and unfortunately there isn’t a political crisis in Bulgaria, but a crisis precisely among the above said institutions.Parvanov spoke in the aftermath of the failed Wednesday attempt of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party to impeach him for violating the Constitution by publishing a transcript from his talk with Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, without the latter’s knowledge. GERB failed to collect the 161 parliamentary votes required to send the impeachment motion to the Constitutional Court. Regarding the impeachment attempt, the President pointed out he is not afraid, had never violated the Constitution and does not mind GERB repeating the move in two months it they wanted.

· A day after Bulgaria's center-right government approved an austerity plan to narrow the budget deficit and avoid currency pressure, the finance minister expressed confidence that the country will successfully exit the crisis. Among the government's successes he singled out improvement in the collection of alcohol and cigarettes excise duties, reimbursements of value-added tax (VAT) to businesses and stabilization in the jobless rate. The approved anti-crisis measures, which include higher spending for social payments to the poor, compensation for the unemployed and jobs creation, will pour about BGN 300 M into the budget of the social ministry, Djankov pointed out.According to him this will give opportunity for thousands of Bulgarians to find a job.The set of sixty measures, debated with trade unions and businesses for over a month, have a wide range and aim to cut spending and boost revenues. Their capacity for success however has been seriously questioned by analysts.