Budget blockade: Pro-Russian party floods Parliament with amendments
Last week, the pro-Russian nationalist party Vazrazhdane submitted 38,235 amendments to the 2025 budget proposal in an apparent attempt to sabotage or at least stall its approval. While the approach is undeniably innovative, questions arose about how such a massive number of submissions were processed.Today, the proposed amendments started appearing online in batches, revealing that most are redundant and merely serve to inflate the numbers. However, a few stand out, particularly one from MP Viktor Papazov, who proposed a drastic reform that would effectively dismantle private pension funds by redirecting all contributions to the state social security system, generating an estimated 3 billion levs in additional revenue.
Transparency concerns over Bulgaria's water utility Holding Funds
As of mid-February, the Bulgarian Water and Sewerage (ViK) Holding had 448.8 million levs remaining from the initial 1 billion levs provided by the state. In response to an inquiry under the Access to Public Information Act, the Ministry of Regional Development disclosed general data on how the funds were used but did not provide details on specific contracts, their dates, or values.The ViK Holding was established in early 2020 amid the water crisis in Pernik, where severe shortages exposed mismanagement issues in the sector. Currently, the holding owns stakes in 27 water utility companies and has issued 108 loans totaling up to 762 million levs, with nearly half of them aimed at helping operators settle outstanding debts to key suppliers.
Missing ballots lower Parliament's entry threshold
A recount of votes in last October's general election from certain polling stations revealed a total of 780 missing ballots. The parties that had the most votes deducted in the revised recount were MRF- New Beginning and GERB, announced Ivaylo Filipov, executive director of Information Services, from the parliamentary podium. The breakdown of deducted votes includes 242 for MRF-New Beginning, mainly in Stara Zagora, and 134 for GERB, among others.Due to these discrepancies, the threshold for entering parliament has dropped by 31 votes from the previously announced result last autumn. The missing ballots were first reported in a letter from Information Services, and according to CEC Chair Kamelia Neykova, the discrepancy arose because experts conducting the recount did not receive the ballots and marked them as missing, despite video footage showing them in the ballot boxes.
Budget blockade: Pro-Russian party floods Parliament with amendments
Last week, the pro-Russian nationalist party Vazrazhdane submitted 38,235 amendments to the 2025 budget proposal in an apparent attempt to sabotage or at least stall its approval. While the approach is undeniably innovative, questions arose about how such a massive number of submissions were processed.Today, the proposed amendments started appearing online in batches, revealing that most are redundant and merely serve to inflate the numbers. However, a few stand out, particularly one from MP Viktor Papazov, who proposed a drastic reform that would effectively dismantle private pension funds by redirecting all contributions to the state social security system, generating an estimated 3 billion levs in additional revenue.
