EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
Author: Vasil Kanev
About Slavi's show and the show's fame, which suffered a surprising blow
On Wednesday (21.11.2018) there was an extremely interesting episode of "Slavi's Show" with a guest - the Bulgarian Prime Minister. Right from the very beginning, I was impressed by the mood of the host - slightly stiff, tense and not particularly happy. I must make the reservation that the behavior of the popular host Slavi T. Trifonov is well known to me, since I follow his production, mostly as a fan of the actors. My personal respect for this popular personality dates back to the last century, when the marches against the socialist government were led with songs by Ku-Ku band, and the reworkings of some folklore songs I would definitely call high-quality.
Naturally, the main production of Ku-Ku Band and Slavi Trifonov is not to my taste at all, but at the same time I cannot help but acknowledge their undeniable success. There is no hall or space that these musicians do not manage to fill with their concerts and regardless of the subjective taste of a given person, objectively speaking, the presenter is an example of a successful career in the field of show business. This successful career, along with the positives, also leads to certain negatives, such as having self-confidence that you will cope with things or situations with which and in which you have no experience. And on Wednesday, Trifonov was painfully knocked to the ground, and at the end of the episode he looked like he had been hit with a wet rag, unable to interrupt the advertising tirade of the GERB leader. It's not that the Prime Minister was perfect, on several occasions he seemed extremely vulnerable to attack, unprepared for the topic, or walking on thin ice that any brave journalist would have easily broken, but that was clearly not the goal. I will also highlight a few highlights from this interview that made the strongest impression on me:
Lukoil and the warm relationship between Zlatev and Borisov
This relationship is a "public secret" and although some media dare to conduct investigations on the topic, they either sink or wash away with time, because there are actually no institutional actions to confirm or reject their claims. A question was asked about Lukoil's monopoly, but Gen. Prof. Boyko Borisov explained that there was no monopoly because there were different gas stations and everyone had a choice of which refineries to use. A clever maneuver that only confirms this warm relationship, because there really is a monopoly and it is determined by the ownership of over 90% of the tax warehouses that the TEAM wrote about. In the end, a consensus was reached that Kostov was guilty and they moved on to the next question.
Party subsidies from the state budget
An interesting moment was also a question regarding party subsidies from the state budget, which GERB promised to reduce, but in reality did not. Here it seemed that the presenter was taking a breath and had a chance to carry out a quality attack, which unfortunately did not work out. The central striker of the "Bistrikshte Tigers" unceremoniously explained that if this amount was not given, the parties would fall under the influence of the "rich", the "oligarchs" - a term from which he tried to escape, but quite unsuccessfully, and if the presenter had wanted to expose him, he would have interrupted him and explained to him exactly what the term oligarch means and that such people cannot exist without the help of the state.
And despite the attempt to counter with the question - "But your money is sitting on deposit, you are not actually using it for its intended purpose!", the escape happened - "We donate the money, but we do not need this money so much for us, but for the small parties to make democracy work" and all the examples that Trifonov gave in support of reducing the subsidy were skipped and the topic slowly ran out. In the end, it became clear that they (GERB) had proposed it, but the Parliament had rejected it. Another point for the GERB team - they complied with the people's wishes, but the bad Parliament stopped them.
Economic illiteracy
The culminating moment, for me, came with the taking out of the "pistol" from the inner pocket and the argument on the topic of how to measure external debt. The host asked a question regarding the values of external debt and budget deficit in 2009 and now, recalling that at approximately the same values then Boyko Borisov said that the country was in collapse and why doesn't he say so now. The answer followed in percentage of GDP and a conversation between two people obviously unfamiliar with the topic began, which would entertain anyone with basic economic knowledge.
I would retell it, but I prefer that every Bulgarian watch it to see what the economic level of two of the most popular leaders in Bulgaria is. There is no way that people want economic prosperity and a high standard of living when there are no people to lead them on this path, there is no way that people want a functioning market economy when they follow people who have no idea what its mechanisms are. I can also add the inadequate answers regarding taxes and specifically VAT, which could not be reduced because it was the lowest in Europe, and the 500 billion leva for pensioners next year is simply impossible to comment on, given that the value of GDP in 2018 will be just over 100 billion.
I hope that the Prime Minister's lecture on how to measure external debt will be immortalized somewhere in the corridors of the UNWE, because this was the most convenient place for the presenter to attack, if he had been prepared, but unfortunately, he was not and accepted all the nonsense that was given to him as an answer. He could have at least made a remark that they are not commenting on figures, but numbers and that there is a difference between the two. He could have, but he did not, and the last convenient moment for a point in Slavi Trifonov's team evaporated after the end of this thematic discussion.
There were also questions about media freedom and electronic voting.
The answer made it clear that Delyan Peevski had a 5% share in the media space, and Bulgaria's place in the ranking of "Reporters Without Borders" was not because the government represses or influences journalists, but because there was strong self-censorship. The general allowed a caricature of him to appear every day and this was the proof that he gave them freedom, but they simply do not want it and censor themselves. Stunning arrogance!
But everything in this interview ended with the topic of electronic voting, which really scared our prime minister, because he knew what world-famous hackers we have and what we would do if they hacked the elections?! Argument at the level of a neighborhood pub in Cherven Bryag. Probably, the resistance of the authorities to electronic voting is based on some well-established schemes for winning elections, in which components are, in addition to paid voting, hollow electoral lists, allowing for manipulations of various scales, which cannot happen with electronic voting. And fraud with these lists has been happening for years - a fact that experienced party apparatchiks are familiar with, who also keep lists of signatures (in support of their party's participation in the elections) in safes and, when the time comes, hand them directly to the CEC, without ever appearing in public places.
Despite the fact that before the last elections there were numerous signals and scandals, including the inclusion of journalist Kanna Racheva in such a list, the system is working and no one has suffered from this falsification. And the falsifications are large-scale, a very small part appears as information in the public domain and this is recent. But it is not only domestic hackers who scare our fearless prime minister, but also Russia and its capabilities to interfere in the elections. Despite the fact that there is a recent example from Estonia, where Russia's attempts to influence the electronic voting there ended in complete failure, this was not mentioned at all - whether out of ignorance or something else, it is not clear. And Slavi Trifonov supposedly supports electronic voting, I hoped that he would be prepared at least on this topic.
At least he made it clear when he was approached by the initiative committee "Vote Without Borders" that he did not need assistance, his topic was clear and he had the necessary experts, but it turns out that this was not the case at all. To this day, it seems inexplicable why this question was left out of the "referendum on the Show" given that such a referendum had already been held. Still, the host tried to explain the difference between Facebook and the Internet, but Gen. Prof. Boyko Borisov was not interested in that. When it comes to elections, there should be no innovations so that there are no frauds! Iron logic that cannot lead us to achieving a high standard of living and a strong economy.
This was followed by an explanation of why we would restart the Belene project.
We had paid for the reactors, which had already been delivered and were waiting, wrapped in plastic, but why we ordered them and who was to blame - it was not clear. We will all pay the billions for the project, but no one will be punished for it! A shameful fact! This was followed by a geopolitical analysis by our prime minister and minutes of advertising the achievements of GERB, which were neither stopped nor questioned.
And so ended a rather painful interview for Slavi Trifonov with an undoubted success for Gen. Prof. Boyko Borisov. Personally, this interview showed me that there is no light in the tunnel, we are traveling in darkness and in an unclear direction and it is certain that the new savior will not appear. So the people have nothing to wait for anymore, and it is best for everyone to get down to what they can do best and in spite of the political elite and the ruling sycophants achieve success and improve their personal standard of living.
