Total failure of the Petkov circle

The avalanche of price increases is shocking

–

Political scientists, intellectuals, financiers and security experts described the first 85 days of the quadruple coalition’s rule as a total failure of Kiril Petkov’s government. In a declaration, GERB announced in parliament that it would act as an uncompromising opposition and demanded the resignation of the cabinet.

Literally hours after the sharp position of Boyko Borissov’s party, President Rumen Radev also ruthlessly criticized Petkov and company. The head of state, who is forming the government of “Change”, defended the NSO officers for the snowballs under the Prime Minister of Shipka. “There is no security breach. There is a breakthrough in common sense. It is not the job of the NSO, it is not the job of SANS, it is not the job of the Ministry of Interior to dig snow in front of the Prime Minister. Their job is to warn him of possible provocations and to ensure his security. They did that, and he said he “thanked” them, Radev said. He also remarked to the Minister of Transport Nikolay Sabev that it was not his job to evaluate the NSO. And then he made direct accusations against Kiril Petkov, explaining to him that there was no coordination headquarters 10 days after the war began. Remind the government that there is a unified national crisis management system that provides an algorithm for action.

Financiers and economists gave examples of electricity for business, which reached a record 1170 BGN / MWh, and the government has created complete chaos in the energy sector and the country is facing a severe crisis. The official annual inflation for the 12 months to the end of January exceeded 9%, and by the end of February is probably approaching the record 10%. Depending on the consumption of each household, personal inflation is significantly higher. At the same time, the government is not taking any measures to limit the rise in prices, commented economists, who Trud asked for comment.

Kiril Petkov’s government even contributed to the rise in prices by delaying business compensation for expensive electricity and setting a compensation ceiling of BGN 250 per megawatt-hour. As a result, in recent months, companies have raised prices and only then received small compensations. The average price of electricity for the business of the energy exchange in the segment “Day Ahead” for March 8 is 839.61 BGN / MWh, and in some hours exceeds 1170 BGN / MWh, which is an absolute record. The increase in the price of electricity is taking place given that Bulgaria exports electricity and the costs of its production have not changed significantly.

On January 1, A95 petrol cost BGN 2.41 per liter, and now it is on average BGN 2.82. This is a 17% increase. For the same period, diesel has risen by 17% to BGN 2.88 per liter. As a result, in order to fill an average-sized tank of a 55-liter car, we have to give 158 leva. The bread now costs nearly 2 leva, and for cuts of 700-800 grams. Bread is becoming more expensive, although our country has stocks of wheat for two and a half years. Against the background of these increases, all traders are raising prices avalanche without the government trying to stop the process.

“Trud” also looked for security experts, who were adamant that against the background of severe economic and financial problems in the Ministry of Interior, the militia has returned. Security experts believe that Boyko Rashkov is moving his subordinates from the special services like pawns.

Rashkov became acting interior minister in the first government appointed by Rumen Radev and has remained in office until now. Rashkov also opened a front for the prosecutor’s office for one simple reason – his investigations lead nowhere, his police officers, sent to act on political orders as police officers, cannot gather a single piece of evidence. The huge revelations and scandals about the properties of magistrates abroad, for Bulgargaz and others turned out to be short-sighted. That is why it is easier for Rashkov to shift the blame from his uneducated investigators to the prosecutor’s office and personally to the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev.

There is hardly a bigger blunder in the new Bulgarian history than this prime minister, who has to control the entire repressive state machine of the executive branch, and carries a folder of 588 pages of newspaper clippings in the prosecutor’s office. And when they ask the prosecutor’s office for data from all the services of the Ministry of Interior, they give them 8 pages, according to experts from the Security Sector.

Borislav Tsekov, Doctor of Constitutional Law, in front of “Trud”:

The assessment of the management is not limited to the last 3 months, but should cover the last year. For a year now, he has been running a political structure that includes circles around the president, his two caretaker governments with Prime Minister Stefan Yanev, and the current government of Kiril Petkov, who was previously caretaker minister. Petkov is an integral part of this construction. We remember that it was produced by the president, who said: “if there were more ministers like Mr. Kiril Petkov, Bulgaria would look different.” Also from Stefan Yanev, who openly stated in the media that he would vote for Petkov.

This is a political construction, regardless of its internal conflicts. Unfortunately for the Bulgarian citizens, who rightly expected a real political change in the last year, this did not happen. If there is a change, it is from bad to worse – from a discredited government (of GERB) to an incompetent government. Within a year they failed to develop and submit to the EC an adequate recovery plan and now Bulgaria does not receive any European funds in this line. They systematically accumulate government debt. Nepotism and shurobadzhanism swirled on an unprecedented scale. The results of the fight against corruption are zero, we even fell down in the rankings of “Transparency International”. There are no adequate measures against energy shock and inflation. The country is stagnant, and now in the critical situation with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the government is radiating chaos.

Kostadin Paskalev, member of the BSP National Assembly, told Trud: The failure is in the energy sector, the war in Ukraine and social compensations

First, the government failed miserably in communication. This failure has quite unpleasant consequences for the government itself, because the people who support it and believe in its actions are currently very hesitant, and even some are strong opponents of it.

There are mainly three topics – energy, the war in Ukraine and social and economic compensation for the people.

There are many unpleasant and contradictory statements, including from the same person as a government representative. Basically this is the prime minister, of course. But there are other government officials who make such mistakes.

With regard to energy, I believe that what needed to be done at the outset was unity in the contracts for the purchase and sale of electricity when it comes to intermediaries. I do not comment on the exchange itself. There can be no long-term contracts and at the same time there is a daily change in prices by 50 percent. This leads to extreme instability and inability to implement the contracts and had to be provided by the government and appropriate measures taken, including by independent state bodies in the face of the EWRC.

In terms of socio-economic action, the government has made two stupid strategic mistakes. One is that the Recovery Plan was not offered to the public for comment, on the one hand. On the other hand, operational programs are dead now, they do not work. On the other hand, the relevant programming documents for the current programming period, which is already one year old, have not been approved at all. That is, neither business, nor social institutions, nor people can plan anything in this direction. They rely on their own resources and capabilities, and in times of crisis and galloping prices this is quite difficult. There is obviously an instability that the government has not been able to deal with.

I do not want to talk about the war in detail, but I want to say only one thing. The analysis should start in 2000 and lead us to today. To say what we think, how we think it and why we think it. Because war is an inadmissible means of resolving political issues, but on the other hand, the constant insane unjustified pressure does not lead to anything good, but leads to war.

Todor Balabanov, Chairman of the Municipal Council of Varna: They dealt a big blow to the municipalities

In a short time, the government has accumulated a lot of negatives, some of which concern the municipalities. Against the background of a drastic jump in the price of electricity, subsidies were first refused and many settlements remained in the dark at night, and then the mayors were threatened with inspections by PFIA. The adopted state budget for 2022 dealt a big blow to the municipalities due to the drastically reduced funds for capital expenditures. Investments in infrastructure, social and educational projects are being stopped, some of which are ready for implementation. Varna will receive only BGN 3 million. They will not be enough to strengthen the landslide of Trifon Zarezan, which blocks the panoramic road to the Golden Sands resort, for the reconstruction of the lakeside Devnya Street, for the construction of the Industrial Zone, whose we have been waiting for the start for 1 year.

Prof. Todor Galunov, Professor of Political Science at the University of Veliko Tarnovo: The Cabinet is struggling with power that is beyond its control

The cabinet turned out to be very unprepared in almost all areas. It seems that he is struggling with power and it is not quite to his liking. First and foremost, the failure of the current government is in the area of ​​fuel and energy prices. I do not think that the government has managed to overcome the health crisis. I do not see changes in the healthcare model and any other crisis will find us unprepared again. From the point of view of Northern Macedonia, there are also no achievements, but rather there is looping and ambiguity. On the issue of the stability of the Government, the situation is also not good. There is tension in the coalition and this is being felt. The personnel crisis is there. The main political formation “We continue the change” does not have enough trained staff. It is said schematically, mistakes are made. There are no trained people to present the ideas with arguments, even if they are not so bad.

Vladimir Kapersky, writer and public figure from Blagoevgrad: There is an impression of discord in power

There is an impression of inadmissible discord in the government – Cornelia Ninova and the BSP are in fact on the side of Russia, and the other partners insist on firmly and consistently following the line of the EU and NATO. It is extremely dangerous in the conditions of heavy military actions not far from the border of Bulgaria to demand the resignation of the Prosecutor General of the Republic, and at a time when the prosecutor’s office enlightened Russian spies – without being Mr. Geshev’s lawyer, I think it is not the essence of judicial reform. For the unprecedented rise in the prices of everything in Bulgaria, things are catastrophic, there is a feeling that this crisis is growing uncontrollably, and this, in addition to creating strong social tensions, also strikes at national security.

–