Prosecutors hit 14 people with hooliganism charges after they allegedly chucked rocks, fireworks, and bottles at cops during a protest in Sofia. Ten suspects are locked up for 72 hours, while the others got released with conditions. Six of them already have criminal records for stuff like drug-related driving and human trafficking.
The district prosecutor's office is pulling camera footage, interviewing witnesses, and ordering expert analysis to figure out who needs to stay in jail permanently. Four suspects have active cases or past convictions hanging over them.
Parliament tanked President Rumen Radev's euro referendum proposal after his office refused to send anyone to defend it, and his press team clapped back, saying lawmakers had eight months to review the plan but never cared about what voters wanted anyway. Speaker Raya Nazaryan tried calling the presidential institution multiple times starting at 8 a.m., but nobody picked up or showed up to make the case.
The referendum would have asked Bulgarians if they supported adopting the euro in 2026. Radev already took this fight to the Constitutional Court back in May after former Speaker Natalia Kiselova rejected his referendum request as inadmissible, and the court agreed to hear part of his complaint in June.
Bulgaria and Egypt are leveling up their partnership after their joint economic commission finally met again in Cairo following a six-year gap. Economy Minister Petar Dilov and Egyptian Planning Minister Rania Al Mashat signed off on plans to boost collaboration across defense manufacturing, energy projects, agriculture, tech, and tourism sectors.
The countries want to get their small and medium-sized businesses linking up since those drive most of their economic growth. A business forum brought 26 Bulgarian companies to the table to explore deals.
Trade between the two hit 670 million dollars from January through August, and officials think ramping up cooperation could turn their solid diplomatic relationship into actual joint...
Alexander Rusanov just rage-quit his spot running the Control Council for Continue the Change after his own party voted against President Rumen Radev's push for a euro referendum. The lawyer posted on Facebook saying the party ditched its original values and started working with the exact politicians they were supposed to be fighting against.
Rusanov called out PP-DB for teaming up with GERB during massive protests, saying it disrespects everyone hitting the streets. He even dropped a screenshot from parliament showing how the votes lined up to prove his point about the betrayal.
The referendum got shot down with 135 no votes, mainly from GERB-SDF, PP-DB, and MRF coalition members.
Someone vandalized the Dimitar Peshev monument in Sofia, and the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria Shalom is calling it part of a bigger pattern. Peshev gets credit worldwide for helping save Bulgarian Jews during World War II, and the group says trashing his memorial disrespects everyone who risked their lives protecting Jewish citizens back then.
Shalom pointed out that monuments and synagogues in Sofia, Burgas, and Varna have all been hit recently, and they think it's a coordinated campaign trying to mess with Jewish-Bulgarian relations. The org cleaned up the monument this morning and wants authorities to track down whoever's behind these attacks.
They thanked Elka Bojova from the Commission for Protection against Discrimination...
Parliament just nuked next year's state budget along with the Health Fund and State Social Insurance budgets after MPs from GERB-SDF, BSP-United Left, and There Is Such a People submitted the withdrawal proposal. The vote passed with 201 MPs backing it, while Velichye sat out completely.
PP-DB and Vazrazhdane wanted Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova to show up and explain why the budget process crashed and burned, but the National Assembly chair shot that down since the proposal came from a party instead of the government. Assen Vassilev from PP-DB called out the flip-flopping, saying everyone claimed this was the only workable budget just a week ago.
Martin Dimitrov added that any replacement budget probably would not fix the...
GERB leader Boyko Borisov dropped a video on Instagram saying his party is done getting pushed around, and coalition partners need to respect what regular people actually want. He mentioned that GERB successfully got Bulgaria into the eurozone and Schengen, but from here on out, they're putting their party's interests first and only doing stuff the public backs.
Borisov said they've dealt with coalition drama eight times already and could handle 16 more rounds if needed, but it's trash for the country. He's hoping everyone chills out and shows some tolerance so the government can actually function, or else they're headed for early elections. The whole vibe was basically take it or leave it.
Financial analyst Kuzman Iliev from the political party Bulgaria Can says the draft budget deserves all the heat it's getting, but he thinks it's just more of the same garbage from previous years. He went on Radio Focus and said the protests happening right now are basically a power play, and the real move should be kicking out the current parliamentary majority since they're totally clueless about the country's big strategic needs.
Iliev argues Bulgaria has cash, but the government keeps wasting it. He wants them to bring back transparency, stop burning money on random stuff, and actually fund important things like infrastructure and a children's hospital. The guy says inflation could chill out if the government stopped racking up...
Parliament shot down Rumen Radev's referendum proposal about euro adoption after the Constitutional Court forced them to actually vote on it, and 135 lawmakers rejected the idea while 81 backed it. Vazrazhdane pushed for the vote since the court ruled that the former speaker could not just ignore presidential requests, but the whole thing got delayed for hours because nobody from the presidency showed up to explain their reasoning, despite Raya Nazaryan trying to reach them multiple times.
Kostadin Kostadinov from Vazrazhdane thinks joining the eurozone without a public vote makes the whole process illegal, and he warned about getting dragged into what he called a collapsing financial pyramid. Yordan Ivanov from PP-DB said the...
