Soap operas hide the transfer of a huge debt burden –

/ world today news/ The synchronized actions of the executive, legislative and judicial authorities, the personnel policy, as well as the unconvincing explanations for them outline the main ideas in the management of the country after the elections of October 5, 2014.

Unfortunately, priority for participants in the so-called a new coalition culture turns out to be the preservation of power at an unacceptably high price – through backroom deals, palliative reforms, persistent distancing from EU legislation and European democratic traditions.

What’s more, the leaders of the new majority strongly fit in with the most criticized by them themselves manifestations of the previous coalition. Therefore, our country is naturally moving away not only from the standards of Western Europe, but also from those of our neighbors. The negative outlook will most likely be noted accordingly in the new EC report. The authorities are expected to prepare excuses for those on duty with the refrain: “Those before us are guilty”. However, it is not advisable to go into the specifics of who exactly, because under the new agreements, some of the appointed have already acquired indulgences.

Why is the picture so pessimistic?

I don’t know if there are any “fulcrums” prepared in the office. But I will list a few facts that illustrate the results of his actions.

Along with the “KTB Robbery”, a record in the history of the country, the prime minister and other politicians from the ruling coalition repeatedly spoke of responsibility. They also mentioned specific names. The Prosecutor General’s Office even announced that it is working on the case. At the beginning of December 2014 public tension was contained by the payment of guaranteed deposits with taxpayers’ money. With that, the case ended “as planned”. It is understood that whoever should have been warned to reset their accounts. For the latecomers, the necessary was done to get their money during the special supervision. It was therefore long and very special – for “special people”. Government, BNB, MPs, auditors and conservators worked around the clock on the relevant “special list”. And for those who didn’t get into it – “that’s how they like it”. The bill, as I indicated, was also charged to the rightful person. The robbery report was apparently accepted “without objection”. Like the 2008 Secret Agreement report. The new (new?-white) secret agreement reached was announced indirectly by the governor of the BNB in ​​a mind-boggling tone. From his report at the annual meeting of the Association of Commercial Banks, it became clear that responsibility will not be sought from the BNB. It is only a matter of time before the prosecutor’s office announces the decision already taken somewhere in the dark. The media were once again to blame.

The Central Bank has activated its law-making activity with a new Law on Mortgage Credit. This was announced by the tireless DPS MP Yordan Tsonev, who apparently continues to work in tandem with the manager Ivan Iskrov. Let’s remember that among the series of their legislative misunderstandings from last summer was the amendment to the NC, with which they tried to impose censorship on the media. It was kept a secret who and how “advised” the deputies from GERB to distinguish themselves from the DPS on this issue in the second reading in the National Assembly. The unconvincing explanations left no doubt that they were doing this against their will.

The above cases outlined the features of the new-old “dynamic” ruling majority. More disturbing are the financial and management principles on which the political agreement rests. Its real manifestations were not long in coming.

Shortly before Christmas at the end of last year, the pension reform became a fact with the votes of GERB and DPS. I do not comment on the state and management of pension funds. I am not commenting on what the “procedural obstacles” were to verify whether there was supervision over these companies in previous years, what their profitability was, etc. Votes were needed for the bill to pass. And they came from a specific place. Against what? Naturally selfless, on the principles of the new coalition culture… The expected response of the prosecutor’s office on the investigation of Delyan Peevski also followed. It would be a small miracle if Mr. Tsatsarov and his wards had managed to detect any violations. This response was followed by the expressly announced decision of the SAC to revoke the license of KTB. With it, a new legal absurdity was logically established – a legal interest in the revocation of a bank’s license was not recognized to its shareholders. The new financial order does not recognize barriers – legal, personnel, ethical or moral. The two judges who signed the decision have no concerns of a professional nature. And rightly so – no embassies grumble against their actions. As we know, our judges change their decisions 180 degrees only when the French ambassador intervenes. In fact, this time the magistrates complied with the indignation of the prime minister, who commented on the unreasonably long term for the decision in question. The Minister of Finance, Vladislav Goranov, reassured the audience that the court panel would rule earlier. Which happened to her.

In addition to the naive explanations by the National Assembly of the famous deputy from GERB Menda Stoyanova about the procedural obstacles that prevented the “desired” resignation of the Board of the BNB and the condescending granting of a second chance by the Prime Minister to the DANS chiefs who slept through the robbery, we found out that our spies worked as ” wind vanes”. It was not clear who the wind generators are?

There were no “stumbling blocks” for the designated scapegoat, former deputy governor of the BNB, Tsvetan Gunev. His release was commented by the Prime Minister simply: “A replacement should be appointed faster”. It was seen that VAS can work expeditiously. Does anyone have any illusions that the National Assembly will fall below that? Controlled information was released in selected media that it will be the deputy manager of the “Bankovo” department, Dimitar Kostov. And who is Kostov? Deputy Governor and member of the Board of the BNB, whose resignation GERB wanted. That is he is part of the team, he did not understand what was going on in KTB, he stubbornly remained silent in the parliament and outside of it last summer. He was finance minister in the Videnov cabinet and one of the apologists for sham documents such as the Banker’s Code of Ethics, the Agreement on Honest Banking, etc. Such a proposal only says that the agreement includes a firm encapsulation of the narrow circle of persons financially responsible for the “KTB Robbery” until the traces are completely covered. Or – until the statute of limitations. In the same spirit was the summer proposal to appoint the other deputy governor, Kalin Hristov, as governor of the BNB.

Final and unique touches in the overall gloomy picture were added by the head of the FCS, Stoyan Mavrodiev. Iskrov and Tsonev wanted prison for free speech. Six months later, Mavrodiev only fines. Well, the fines were bigger than those for the KTB auditor, but we already understood that the media is the main culprit. If there happen to be others, they are only sympathetic. And no matter how big the fines are, against the background of the drama with the Paris attacks, this is just an innocent joke.

In order to expose the malicious media and limit their influence, the stalwarts of the financial order started organizing and promoting meetings and discussions with the right speakers. On thoughtful topics like: “How important is it to be financially literate?” or “Challenges and prospects arising from the new EU legal framework”. Graduates of the ideological market school have taken to advising the rulers not to adopt the stupid EU banking legislation. Not that the latter have strengthened. It was contradictory – that’s right, but they don’t specify just for whom.

While we observe the strange collisions in the words and actions of the rulers, the right media bombard us with promises of radical changes: we will enter the European Banking Supervision (we have not yet submitted an application – note), we will invite the World Bank, the IMF and top international companies to investigate KTB, we will accept the euro (by 2018 we will probably be in the waiting room-bel.a.). Perhaps there is a need to tirelessly simulate an activity.

Let’s leave the shams of the information policy of the Management Program of the power. On 15.01.2015 Bulgaria paid off over a billion US dollars of its foreign debt. The Prime Minister makes generous promises for construction projects, related to serious expenses for our capabilities and state debt for 5.9 billion BGN due by the end of 2017. Whoever governs will have the difficult task of securing its service and financing the planned until at least 2016. budget deficit. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance predicts the size of the state debt at the end of 2015. to grow to 24.5 billion BGN, and the ratio of public debt/GDP will be around 30%. These are the dry numbers.

Looking at them, the defenders of the status quo set the first task for Borisov’s second government to be to achieve stabilization while not deviating from the existing financial order. No matter how vicious and hopeless it is. They advise him that the priority in his policy should be the achievement of revenues in the short term – how much, it is not clear.

The severe problems and liabilities accumulated in the country by lobbyist legislation and decades of economic experiments logically did not lead to sustainable growth. The rulers do not see a way out of this situation. The source of the necessary financial resource to cover the current payments is once again determined to be the taxpayers. This is a serious enough decision, because of which representatives of responsible state institutions are ready to turn their backs on all legal and professional canons.

As cynical as it sounds, playing out the soap opera “The KTB Robbery” is a good justification for transferring a huge debt burden to the population. This is the reason why responsibility is not sought from the “writers and soloists”, but from the “orchestra”, in order to simplify the duties. As we can see, the first group asserts its positions in the scheme of the so-called a new coalition culture. One might think that in this way the rulers are walking on thin ice, becoming hostage to a chaotic financial order and compromised comedians. No, apparently that doesn’t bother them. In the created chaos, it is more important for them to be in the position of those who hold the knife and the bread. /BGNES

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Georgi Atanasov, analyst from the Bulgarian Financial Forum.