Borissov’s house of cards is shaking

The Bulgarian prime minister is facing a public storm, leaking of secrets and a rampant prosecution service. This promises turbulence ahead for him and the country.

Is State Capitalism Marching On?

Within a brief period, Bulgaria’s government has aggressively injected billions of levs into key sectors, and has effectively started nationalizing businesses

MRF Corporation

Launched as a party fighting for the political representation of Bulgaria’s ethnic Turks, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms has morphed into a quasi-business organization quietly pulling strings behind the scenes

Brussels abandons push for reforms in Bulgaria’s justice system

The European Commission decided that 13 years of tutoring without progress are enough

Top 25 in the fuel sector: The largest companies are at a crossroads

The sector performed well in 2018 but key challenges lie ahead – the Sofia Airport concession, the EU decision on trucks and the introduction of the toll tax in Bulgaria

State companies invest in order to give more money to Ahmed Dogan

Parliament endorses unlimited donations to political parties from individuals and businesses

Fast Reads

Asset growth lags behind overall economic expansion

The assets of the 50 largest companies in Bulgaria grew by a meager 1.5% to 64.3 billion levs in 2018

Guesthouses for politicians

Ahmed Dogan: MRF honorary chairman strikes again in Varna

With its head buried in the coal

Bulgaria is the only EU Member State with a significant coal sector that hasn’t begun restructuring

Deals of 2018: Weak Season with Mostly Local Buyers

Ginka Varbakova, Ahmed Dogan, Brendo were the most active Bulgarians in the deals, as easterners replaced westerners

When it walks like corruption, when it quacks like corruption

While the Bulgarian authorities appear to be cracking down on some allegedly corrupt officials and businessmen, oligarchic interests favored by those in power receive a significant economic boost

Borissov's thinning bench

GERB is unable to put forward new faces to substitute disgruntled ministers

Bulgaria's media-industrial complex

Bulgarian politicians helped create Delyan Peevski’s media empire, but now fall prey to its unrestrained influence and his demands

Bulgaria’s Political "Apprentice"

Patriotic pop-folk singer, TV host and majoritarian electoral system supporter Slavi Trifonov is moving closer to making the first political reality format in Bulgaria

Neighbours without benefits

Sofia doesn’t know how to handle the big country at its South Eastern border and the growing instability in Turkey creates a long-term risk for Bulgaria

The politics of justice

Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov uses his unchecked powers to harass politicians, while Bulgarians still wait to see the first successful anti-corruption investigation against a politician

Slavi Trifonov: How to run the country from the TV screen

A famous TV host wants to change the electoral system in an attempt to root out the existing political class. Majoritarianism will most probably solidify it