Bulgarian press review, December 2, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, December 2 (BTA)

THE HOME SCENE

"The Big Reconciliation - Episode 2" headlines a front-page story in "Troud" on the Tuesday meeting of President Georgi Purvanov, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva. The meeting was prompted by amendments in the tax legislation which, among other things, scrapped a tax relief for young families. But that was before the Prime Minister intervened and said these should be kept, and before the President said he might veto the law unles Parliament change its mind.
The paper also quotes the President as saying at a joint briefing the three held after the meeting, that he would decree the recall of the Bulgarian Ambassadors to the US and Turkey later on Tueaday or Wednesday at the latest.
The government and the President's office have been at odds over the ambassadorial recall since Purvanov refused to endorse a governmenet proposal to replace the two diplomats over irregularities in voting in Turkey and in the US during the July 5 Bulgarian general elections.
Prime Minister Borissov is quoted as saying that the meeting sent a very important message - that the state institutions in Bulgaria work in harmony.

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In a "Monitor" interview ("I Believe We Will See Convictions against Ex-Ministers"), Parliamentdeputy leader Luchezar Ivanov (GERB) says that the current Parliament is doing well in law-making and has enough bills to work on. A total of 115 bills have entered Parliament between the start of its term in August and December 1, and 49 of these are now being considered. He said that the main difference between this and the last Parliament is that this one prioritizes the quality of laws rather than their quantity.

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In a "Troud" interview, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) deputy leader Kassim Dal says that GERB were unprepared for the kind of victory they won at the July general elections and entered politics unprepared. "See the Council of Ministers: they say one thing in the morning and another thing in the afternoon, and a totally different decision is made the next day! It speaks of a lack of experience, of incompetence. Unfortunately, you see that in Parliament everything follows the Prime Minister's dictate. We have never had a Parliament with so little character." Dal says though that it is early days to assess the performance of the new power-holders.
The interview is entitled "[Ivan] Kostov Does the Dirty Work for Borissov" and is prompted by the commencement of new checks into the assets of MRF leader Ahmed Dogan.
Dal denies any agreement between his party and GERB.

In a "24 Chassa" interview, MRF's other deputy leader, Lyutvi Mestan, says that a GERB-MRF thaw is "an overly bold hypothetical". He says it is questionable whether GERB's high approval ratings mean confidence or hope.

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Political and social scientists from a "Troud" analysis group run a commentary on the government's work after its first 100 days in office. Entitled "Hefty Ambitions, Less Work", it says
that the days after the first 100 were dominated by high public approval and the first expressions of organized criticism. The opposition made its first serious remarks. There was over-ambition in the exercise of power and much less efficient work. More wrongdoings by the previous power-holders continued to be revealed. The attitude to the partners in the Right wing shows a no-compromise policy. The personal presence and actions of Prime Minister Borissov are presented as a last instance on all political matters. The minority government is effectively acquiring the makeup of a majority government, say the analysts.

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"Sega" runs a commentary on the election of leaders by the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and the National Movement for Surge and Stability (NMSS) under the headline "New Party Leaders with Old Luck". "Two parties, both with a place in the most recent Bulgarian history, woke up with new leaders at the start of this week. The problem both for UDF and NMSS is that their parties are like a fenceless yard where no trace has remained of a shared idea, shared rules which everybody obeys, and a shared vision. In NMSS, two camps stood out at the confress [Е] One is pulling to the Right and demonstrate independence and the other are diligent feudals who bow low to the King [Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha] and prefer the Liberal niche. NMSS will probably disappear but they will stay. At UDF, the situation is dramatic. Martin Dimitrov actually won slightly over a third of the members' votes but the resource this gives him is not enough to consolidate the party - and consolidation is the first pre-condition for having some development", says the author.

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"Troud" reports the arrest of four men responsible for blackmailing the former chief of the Civil Protection service, Gen. Nikola Nikolov ("Roma Gang Blackmail General for EUR 250,000"). The four allegedly threatened the general to say that Roma businessmen have been paying him to win public procurement deals for disaster relief work.

ECONOMY

In the commentary column of "Troud" (""Big Promises Lead to Disappointment), former trade minister Valentin Vassilev (in Ivan Kostov's government) says that the Bulgarian economy will contract by at least 3.5 per cent next year rather than by the 2 per cent the government expects. He also believes that after some stability in summer, in late 2010 unemployment will cross the 15 per cent mark. This will be the result of a shortage of financial resources for a quick exit from the crisis. Another reason is the shape of the global economy which is taking longer than expected to recover. Furthermore, the Bulgarian economy has an unfavourable structure: we donТt see any of the sectors that could pull it up. "The big promises for fast end of the crisis usually result in big disappointment, followed by social tension and political instability, and this is not in Bulgaria's interest," Vassilev says.

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"If lawyers were impressionists and [Finance Minister Simeon] Djankov knew about social insurance, he would have known that hiking the contributory income minimum for the self-insured to 420 leva from 260 leva would inflate the shadow economy," says a "24 Chassa" analysis. "The vast majority of those who pay their own social insurance, live on the verge of the social minimum but are trying hard to manage on their own. They donТt register as unemployed or socially disadvantaged to depend on the rest of tax-payers, or go in the shadow economy. Having wholeheartedly defended the people 'who work their vineyard', the Prime Minister now should take care of the thousands of small craftsmen and self-employed people," the story says.

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According to "Sega", the government "barely finds money for welfare and wages". An investigation by this paper found that the government has a serious problem making regularly the due payments for welfare, child benefits and wages. "For the second time since this government took over, welfare payments, child benefits and integration aid for the disabled did not come on time. This caused tension in some parts of the country."


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"Novinar" reports that under a new medical insurance model only working people's medical insurance can go into a private medical insurance fund. The new model was presented by Parliament deputy chair and head of the parliamentary health commission Luchezar Ivanov at a round table in Parliament. In 2011 all people with medical insurance will be required to make additional insurance and the insurance contribution will be raised to 10 per cent from 8 per cent. Once the new model is set in place, there will be one basic package which will be covered by the National Health Insurance Fund, and a second package which will be additional and which will be covered by an insurer of the insured person's choice.

"Dnevnik", too, has a front-page story on that entitled "Health Care Reform Takes Big Turn". It notes that the strategy presented by Luchezar Ivanov is much departed from one unveiled earlier by Health Minister Bozhidar Nanev. In Nanev's strategy, private funds were able to compete with the National Health Insurance Fund and between themselves for the contributions of all insured persons, including children, pensioners and disabled people, among others whose health insurance is paid for by the government.

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"Troud" writes that electricity supplier CEZ is waging a large-scale war on the energy regulator. The regulator's chief, Angel Semerdjiev, said Tuesday that all of the regulator's decisions are being challenged in court. At the same time the opetator's relations with its clients have soured. "When we have a critical mass of violations, revoking the operator's licence could become an option," says Semerdjiev.

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 – December 2, 2009

· Nikolay Kokinov, the Sofia Chief Prosecutor, has announced that formal charges have been brought against Tsvetelin Kanchev, leader of the Euroroma union. He will be kept in custody for 72 hours. Together with Kanchev, four other detainees, including Roma leader Hristo Varbanov-Papata (the Pope), have also been charged. All five had been arrested on Tuesday, following a tip-off to the police by Nikolay Nikolov, former head of Bulgaria’s Civil Defense Directorate, that he was being blackmailed for EUR 250 000. Earlier on Wednesday, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, the Interior Minister, had announced that Nikolov had become the target of blackmail to avoid his being incriminated in criminal breach of trust. Tsvetanov explained that Roma leader Tsvetelin Kanchev was present at one of the meetings between Nikolay Nikolov, and the group of Roma persons who were blackmailing him.