De-privatization + prosecutor's power...

At a moment when threatening clouds are hanging over the world's economy and the new government is trying to win over the trust of business, one of the three powers in the face of the chief prosecution has sent the next swath in a row against the investment climate in Bulgaria. The total check on all the major privatization deals, aiming at legal de-privatization, is the news which draws each potential investor nearer to the critical level of the calculated risk.

Regardless what calculation the next attack of Prosecutor General Nikola Filchev arises, the net effect from it could be commensurate with the consequences from the moratorium on the foreign debt, announced by the late Prime Minister Andrey Lukanov, and the financial crisis in 1996, when Bulgaria was taken out of the international investment map.

All arguments for and against the massive check on privatization deals were put in the forefront in previous statements by Bulgarian socialists and the National Movement Simeon II for a re-privatization offensive.

Abiding by the legal demands that violators of law should be persecuted, but the most effective way for that hardly included the noisy, ostentatious announcements and the declaration that buyers are violators and are guilty by default. Moreover, that the main guilty participants should be sought among the sellers.

With the expediency of an operation of this kind, things seem even clearer. What else could be expected from an investor in a privatized enterprise whose deal is about to be cancelled apart from cashing out what he can and searching for a safer place for his capital - leaving the drained enterprise in the hands of the state. Along with the expenses from the whole operation.

In Bulgaria, there is almost no huge deal that occurred without a scandal. The attempt of the prosecutor general to channel societal energy in the direction of revenge seeking instead of the future on the basis of construction, might change the status quo. When, for the next time, the name of Bulgaria is obliterated from the investment maps, there will be no strategic investors, no huge deals and logically no privatization scandals.
-Kapital

To teachers - with love and money

As opposed to winter, September 15 never surprises us. The first school bell rings, water is spilled for luck, wild geranium is present, and the first-graders are proud at their desks. And teachers are threatening to go on strike because of due salaries.

It is the same every year. Repetition could lead to knowledge, but with hungry teachers the whole wisdom perishes.

In fact, a way out has already been found. At the turn of the previous century, a new management came to the rescue of a dying automobile company. Its first job was to raise the salaries of the workers. The effect was amazing. Productivity rose more than the salaries themselves. And even today, the automobiles are among the best.

We know that the young Bulgarians are some of the most erudite in the world. But if we want this to be true in a century, we should give the teachers love, and also, of course, a salary.
-Trud

IMF hints compromise

The new cabinet received a public warning to bear in mind the International Monetary Fund, if it insists Bulgaria retain access to international financial markets.

Through the Neue Zuericher Zeitung, the IMF is sending us a direct message that the cabinet does not have the right for another move, except a compromise in the economic program. Does this mean that we will not have a salary increase and lower taxes? Hardly, because those were the major pre-election promises given by the National Movement Simeon II. It is more probable that, in the process of the negotiations, the ministers and the IMF emissaries will make compromises, in order to reach an agreement. In this sense the IMF message is not just a plea, but also a readiness for compromise.
-24 Chassa

The "blue" fight for three letters: UDF

What was expected to happen has actually happened to the Union of Democratic Forces. Three months after the parliamentary elections, the party's leader Ekaterina Mihailova reported that no-one was responsible for the failure.

Evgeni Bakurdjiev had good reason to lose his temper. He demanded that the names of those responsible be published. The war within the UDF started. Two opposing groups have been identified and local organizations have already started to declare where they stand. The first faction consists of the Commander (Ivan Kostov), the Class Mistress (Ekaterina Mihailova), Dimitar Abadjiev and Yordan Sokolov, members of the National Executive Council, etc. The second one includes Petar Stoyanov, Evgeni Bakurdjiev, Stefan Sofianski, and Nadezhda Mihailova.

It is quite clear that the UDF will split into two parties - Kostov's circle, and Stoyanov's. The latter is willing to work with the National Movement Simeon II. It's just a question of time before this happens. From that moment on, the battle within the UDF will be focused on who is first to leave because the winner will be the one to take the three letters - UDF.
-Standart