After a weekend of extreme rainfall that hit especially hard central northern Bulgaria, all eyes are once again turned towards the burning political crisis in the country, which escalated in unexpected ways in the past few days.
All four TISP ministers file resignations
Five days after There is Such a People (TISP) party leader Slavi Trifonov announced he will pull out TISP's four ministers from the coalition cabinet - Grozdan Karadjov (regional development), Teodora Genchovska (foreign affairs), Alexander Nikolov (energy), and Radostin Vassilev (sports) - all four have filed their resignations. While Mr Karadjov joined Mr Trifonov in attacking the spending policies of Finance Minister Assen Vassilev, the other three ministers only said they are leaving their posts because they toe TISP's line and did not criticize Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.
Ruling majority may survive after renegade TISP MPs announce split from the party
Just a few hours after the last of the four ministerial resignations was filed on Monday, TISP leader Slavi Trifonov announced on Facebook that several MPs from the party have defected to the largest party in the ruling coaltion, We Continue the Change (WCC). Thus, he confirmed rumors first announced by the 24 Chasa daily newspaper earlier on Monday that at least 7 TISP MPs have decided to abandon the party after the sudden decision of Mr Trifonov to leave the coalition last Wednesday. It is still unclear who those MPs are or their precise number, but the three remaining coalition partners - WCC, Democratic Bulgaria and BSP need at least 12 deputies in order to command majority in the National Assembly. TISP holds 25 of 240 seats in parliament, while the remaining three parties of the coalition hold 109 seats among themselves.
Exports to EU grow by 37% in the first four months of 2022
The value of Bulgarian goods shipped abroad in January -April have grown by more than a third compared to the same period of 2021 and are worth nearly 29 billion BGN, preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) shows. Exports in the first four months are also up 52 percent in nominal terms compared to the likie period of pre-crisis 2019. In the first four months, Bulgarian products worth 19.5 billion BGN were sold on European markets, marking a nearly 37 percent increase compared to the same period of 2021. Exports to third countries reached 9.2 billion BGN, which represents a 28 percent increase compared to the first four months of 2021. It is important to note that the increase is not due to expansion in the quantity of products sold, but to a rise in their prices.
After a weekend of extreme rainfall that hit especially hard central northern Bulgaria, all eyes are once again turned towards the burning political crisis in the country, which escalated in unexpected ways in the past few days.
