The week: Bulgarian silence on Gaza, The dark Energy cartel and EnduroSat takes to the stars

Destroying the ability to have children has nothing to do with defeating Hamas and has everything to do with controlling the fate of a population.

A rock always rolls slowly in the beginning and then it gathers momentum. It has happened with dark episodes in the past. It is happening with Gaza now. The EU, France, UK, and Germany have all condemned Netanyahu's government in the past week. Even Donald Trump slapped him in the face, by not meeting with him on his Middle East trip and refusing to back his plan to bomb Iran. It is too late, I'm afraid, as the situation in Gaza is probably already on the brink of an unimaginable catastrophe. Yet I'm writing here to raise the question, as I have done before, of why is Bulgaria always so silent on Israel?

There is hardly any word on the website of the Foreign Ministry about Gaza or Israel. This probably is because it's been decided to better leave the harsh words to the bigger voices. But we almost kept mute when a Bulgarian humanitarian worker was killed a month ago. Then Israel confirmed the death and Bulgaria asked for money.

Part of the reason is a post-socialist mentality of aligning with the US and their goals in the region, as a backlash against the pro-Palestinian stance the USSR insisted on, as this report points out. Part of it is that Bulgaria has always had close relations with Israel - on the level of public diplomacy and on a more secret level. Not a small part is the admiration Boyko Borissov has for Benjamin Netanyahu - and lest we forget, this is the current FM of Bulgaria, kissing the hand of Borissov for allowing him into politics.

But I have the eerie feeling that this deafening silence about Gaza's tragedy - made all the more conspicuous against the background of our very public stance on Ukraine's terrors - will come to haunt us.

Politics this week:

Here is a stark reminder of why this is still a lawless territory, no matter what anyone tells you. There has been a division in the Turkish rights and movement party since last year. We wrote a lot about the hostile takeover of the party, initiated by Magnitsky-sanctioned Delyan Peevski. It ended with two parties, one headed by Peevski, the other headed by Dzevdet Chakarov - a longtime party functionaire. They even entered parliament as separate entities and Chakarov has been spearheading a court case for the rights to the party.

Up until this week.

Chakarov inexplicably came crawling to Peevski and submitting himself to the mogul: it was all documented with a triumphant press release and a picture of the two. So what happened? Blackmail happened, of course. Sofia district prosecution and the Anti-corruption Commission decided to start a case against Chakarov's son and earlier this month, the court ordered a freeze on his assets in more than 40 companies, some of which include the biggest solar parks in the country.

It's not the euro, stupid

Since this is part of a pretrial investigation, no details are known, but honestly - none are needed. Both of those theoretically independent institutions have ganged up on an enemy of Peevski and bullied him into submission and probably will, in time, lift the accusations and the freeze. There was probably lots to be enquired about in Chakarov's case, yet the timing is telling.

So there you have it: the art of the state capture in action, where law enforcement is available only on demand (by certain figures). With or without a euro currency.

The shadowy energy holding of Chichko Trevichko

Unregulated financial incentives for civil servants, six-figure loans for politicians (including at least one for WCC-DB), tax and social security fraud worth hundreds of millions, carbon quota fraud, and leaks of information about upcoming European Public Prosecutor's Office investigations-these are just some of the scandals that the Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) has revealed in its new investigation into the hidden energy holding company Orion, run by the mogul Hristo Kovachki.

The guy with the stampWe've written about Kovachki lots of times - about how he controls the energy market and the European prosecution checks on the endless pollution schemes. But these are insights from a very knowledgeable insider. The investigation is called "Chichko Trevichko's Holding," named after the email address that Kovachki is said to use to guide his energy empire.

On the surface, it seems as if the shadowy energy oligarch has a sense of humor - he has been signing internal orders with various children's stamps, including ones with images of Shreck, Iron Man, and Darth Vader. The reason is that his name should not appear on any of the documents, so as to avoid being traced back. And the strawman directors of his subsidiaries around the country were kept in check by being indebted to him - literally, to the tune of several million each. You can read more next week or watch the thing here

Economy:

A week before the European institutions officially announce their assessment of whether Bulgaria is ready to join the eurozone (all signs are that it will be positive), opinions for and against the single currency remain polarized. Half of all Bulgarians disapprove of the euro, while 43% support it. This is shown by the results of the latest Eurobarometer survey by the European Commission. The number of opponents of the euro has increased compared to the previous survey, which shows that the anti-euro propaganda of the president and the anti-systemic parties seemed to have flourished.

Figure:

11.5 billion levs

The total estimated value of the 94,840 residential property transactions in 2024, which reached levels unprecedented since 2017

Business:

EnduroSat

In February, the satellite service provider raised 20 million euros and this week the company has announced a new 23 million euro investment from the American Founders Fund, whose partner is Bulgarian Delian Asparuhov, founder of the space company Varda.

Manufacturing

IPS

The Bulgarian firm, known for its autonomous power supply solutions based on its Exeron technology, is starting mass production of a new battery system that can store up to 8.2 MWh of electricity to take advantage of the market for batteries at a new plant in the Hemus Industrial Park near Sofia.

Watch out for:

Diana Rusinova

SMS, national television, press conference, letter, Facebook - these are the channels through which Rusinova, chairwoman of the NGO European Centre for Transport Policies, and Minister of Regional Development Ivan Ivanov communicated for a week, when the latter invited the former to become head of the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA). She initially declined, saying that the minister could not have been serious. "She declined, saying it wasn't serious, but I am a serious person," the Minister told bTV. Apparently, Rusinova also realized that and wrote an official letter to him in which she accepted the job offer, only to get rebuffed over Facebook by Ivanov, who said that the proposal had lapsed. Yes, this is the level of absurdity we have to deal with.

Nikola Tsolov

The 17-year-old ART Grand Prix driver dominated the legendary Monaco race in the Formula 3 category. With this victory, the Bulgarian driver climbed to third place in the overall standings with 61 points and became the fifth youngest winner in Formula 3 history. He also becomes the record holder for titles in the new history of F3 after 2019. Formula 3 is considered a serious step towards participating in Formula 1.

Date:

1 June

It's Children's Day in Bulgaria, so if you have kids, there are quite a lot of options to spend the time - there will be a Kids Expo next to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, featuring sports, games, demonstrations by the police and the fire department and much more. Alternatively, take the steam engine to Pernik at 9:50 from the Central Railway Station. Or go cuddle with alpacas, mini-donkeys and ponies in the former stable in the Borissova garden between 10-20:00.

Institution:

Commission for the Protection of Competition

GERB, BSP, and TISP, which lost their majority in parliament, pushed through all their candidates for the new composition of the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) on Friday with the support of Delyan Peevski's MRF-New Beginning. Surprise, surprise - none of the three candidates from the opposition - two from WCC-DB and one from Ahmed Dogan's MRF - were admitted to the regulatory body, which is of key importance for business. Former economy minister Rosen Karadimov headed the body and immediately advocated for the expansion of the CPC's power.

Zen of the week: