Prof. Minkin at University Hospital St. Ivan Rilski in Bulgaria just put in the country's first baclofen pump, which is basically a hockey-puck-sized gadget that sits under your stomach skin and drips medication through a tiny tube straight to your spinal cord. The device helps people with gnarly spasticity from multiple sclerosis, spinal injuries, cerebral palsy, and some other conditions by delivering baclofen at way lower doses than oral meds while dodging brain side effects. The first patient was a 48-year-old woman with MS who tested positive for the treatment.
The pump doesn't make you stronger or help you walk again, but it cuts down on pain and weird positioning issues. Patients need a test lumbar puncture first to see if...
Electrohold and Sofia Graffiti Tour teamed up again to paint 10 transformer stations owned by ERM West with street art that pushes messages about power safety, environmental stuff, clean energy, and sports. The company behind it all ran a campaign called Life is worth more than likes with the hashtag StayAliveChallenge to stop kids from doing dumb, risky things when they film extreme content for social media.
The whole thing is part of their Energy is yours project, which has been turning boring electrical infrastructure into eye candy around Bulgarian cities. They figure if teens are gonna be glued to their phones anyway, they might as well see reminders not to get themselves killed chasing viral moments near dangerous equipment.
Sofia police chief Plamen Maksimov got busted alongside some anti-drug unit cops in a corruption sweep. The Internal Security Service and the drug trafficking prevention folks ran the operation, and they grabbed multiple officers who were supposedly fighting narcotics. Maksimov had been running the Fifth Regional Department since 2022, when acting Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev put him there.
The guy before Maksimov got the boot because he failed to keep tabs on officers who were protecting some dude named Georgi Semerdzhiev. This whole mess is another example of the systemic corruption problems that have been plaguing Bulgarian law enforcement for years.
Bulgaria's Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov stepped down after protests led by Gen Z demonstrators angry about corruption and dysfunction in their government. The young people mobilized through TikTok and brought down the sixth leader in five years, making it the first European government toppled by this generation. President Rumen Radev, a former pilot who has criticized Western support for Ukraine, could benefit from the chaos and might form his own party for the upcoming elections.
The protests started over budget proposals that raised taxes but expanded into broader complaints about how entrenched elites keep power through corruption. About 70% of Bulgarians backed the movement, and protesters showed up with memes and videos mocking...
Vazrazhdane plans to back the cabinet resignation but wants Bulgaria to pump the brakes on euro adoption by asking for a one-year delay. Party leader Kostadin Kostadinov says the country can request an extension until 2027 because of force majeure circumstances like not having a budget or a functioning government. Bulgaria and Romania got special treaty exemptions back when they joined the EU, and the European Parliament only lifted those exceptions recently.
Kostadinov thinks elections should happen by late March since Easter falls in mid-April, and nobody wants to run votes during Palm Sunday. The timing depends on how President Radev handles the mandate roulette with different parties trying to form coalitions before everything...
Bulgarian trade unions from CITUB and Podkrepa blocked the deputy entrance to parliament and dropped a 15-question list demanding answers before the budget votes move forward. Plamen Dimitrov from CITUB says lawmakers need to hash out budget changes instead of coasting on an extension law, since half a million workers are waiting on minimum wage bumps that vanish if they just roll over the old numbers.
The unions want clarity on teacher salaries and other protester demands that got ignored when deputies signaled they would skip voting on the proposed state budget. An extension law lets parliament spend at the same rate as last year without actually increasing the minimum wage or addressing any of the worker issues that sparked months...
Sociologists Evelina Slavkova and Parvan Simeonov say Bulgarian protesters are ready to keep hitting the streets if politicians keep screwing around, and everything hinges on whether President Rumen Radev launches his political project. Simeonov figures Borisov will blame protesters for any euro drama while trying to stay relevant for future coalition deals, and Radev could become the main winner if he actually jumps into the race alongside PP-DB.
Trust in elections tanked hard after the Constitutional Court messed with results back in March, dropping to just 16 percent. Slavkova thinks the same tired parties running again will produce the same garbage results, but a Radev candidacy might actually get people excited enough to vote...
Nikolay Denkov from PP-DB says mass protests knocked out the Zhelyazkov government after citizens figured out three major lies the establishment kept pushing for years. He claims people finally realized their voices matter when over 100,000 demonstrators hit the streets, and the whole "stability comes from Borisov and Peevski" narrative turned out to be backwards since those two actually caused all the chaos since 2020. Denkov admits PP-DB caught heat for trying to work with Borisov before discovering Peevski was attached to the deal.
The former official says Bulgaria needs honest leadership that listens to protesters demanding transparency and European-style development instead of the same old crew pretending they can govern. He...
President Rumen Radev has to offer GERB first crack at forming a government since they pulled the most seats, and the mandate slides over to PP-DB if GERB whiffs on putting together a coalition. The president gets to pick whoever receives the third attempt if the second-largest party also strikes out.
Constitutional changes let Radev choose from ten people for a caretaker cabinet if everyone fails, and the list covers the parliament speaker, the central bank governor, plus deputies, the ombudsman and deputy, and the audit court chairman with his two deputies. The outgoing government keeps running things until someone figures out a new setup or Radev calls fresh elections.
