All national dailies comment on the parliamentary discussions of the motion for a vote of no-confidence in the Cabinet, submitted by 73 MPs of the United Democratic Forces (UtdDF), Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB), Bulgarian News Democracy (BND), the FORWARD Movement and independent MPs.

24 Chasa Daily

"24 Chasa" writes that Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev delivered a record-long speech of one hour and fifteen minutes in Parliament. The debate lasted some nine hours. The Cabinet's key weapon against the opposition involved long speeches, detailed presentations, accompanied by pictures and charts, figures and reports, the paper writes. The number of pessimists dropped from 400,000 to 150,000 people in the past four years, Stanishev said. "If I could set the time back I would have invested more energy in training the administration to work with the EU funds," Stanishev allegedly confessed. He noted, however, that although, formally, Bulgaria is a full EU member as of the first day of its accession, this cannot happen all at once in practice. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin is quoted as saying that the motion was submitted because the Right have problems and want to boost their rating.

"There could be new parliamentary elections in the autumn," says Kamelia Kassabova, MP of NMSS, cited by "24 Chasa". In her view this is possible, if there is low turnout at the upcoming elections. "Given the new economic situation, coupled with social tension, I wonder how a government would take adequate measures to cope with the crisis and this is why no political formation would like to set up a one-party government. Such government would simply not survive the social pressure," she believes. In her view it is likely not to form a coalition government, which would provoke early elections in the autumn. Kassabova says NMSS would not yield from its position of holding simultaneously the elections for the European Parliament and the election for national representatives. "We have submitted draft constitutional amendments and, in this context, we will insist that they are considered by the Legal Committee and at the plenary hall so that the arguments "in favour" and "against" the proposal be heard clearly," she states.

Bulgaria is the country with highest air pollution in Europe, "24 Chasa" writes on its front page. This statement features in the Strategy on Environment Protection by 2018, drafted by the Environment Ministry. The draft document is pending approval by the Cabinet next week.

Trud Daily

The incumbents - ministers and MPs of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the National Movement for Surge and Stability (NMSS) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) - took the floor from the opposition trying to outspeak it, "Trud" writes. According to DSB leader Ivan Kostov, there should be consensus regarding the compliance with the European rules. The same paper cites GERB informal leader Boiko Borissov as saying that the chance of the three-party coalition is related to the fact that Bulgaria's largest party is an extra-parliamentary one. "Otherwise we would have toppled them already during the first vote," says he cited by the paper.

"Trud" quotes Prof. Dragomir Draganov as saying that there should be different threshold for entering Parliament for parties and coalitions. Then the splitting of parties would stop, he believes.

The central heating prices will drop by 8 per cent as of April, "Trud" writes citing Prof. Konstantin Shoushoulov, chief of the Energy and Water Regulatory Committee. The decrease will be due to the lower natural gas prices. Gas distributor Bulgargaz will most likely request a decrease of 11 per cent. However, according to a new ordinance on price setting, it is impossible that the different heating utility companies have different reductions. Shoushoulov is quoted as saying that the reduction would be good for consumers but the question for the compensation of the heating utilities remains open. According to the Committee, the higher bills for January were probably due to mistakes in the reading of heating meters. 

Investment projects of the worth of hundreds of millions of euro will be launched in the region of the Sofia Central Railway Station in the following months, "Trud" writes. The public urban development plan has already been approved. Sky scrapers, a multistorey parking, administrative building and molls are to be built up in the region.  

President Georgi Purvanov, arrived Wednesday on his first state visit to Italy at the invitation of his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano. Bulgaria and Italy should make efforts so that they would not lose their good economic relations in the conditions of the financial crisis, Purvanov and Napolitano said at a joint news conference cited by "Trud". "We discussed how to prevent a drop in the inflow of Italian investments due to the crisis," Purvanov allegedly said after the interview.

Sega Daily

The nine-hour debates in Parliament turned into a report on what has been done during the Government's term in office, "Sega" writes. The oppositions motives concerning failures in regards to the EU integration, the economic growth and the social responsibility were lost in the boasts of the Prime Minister, the cabinet ministers and the MPs of the ruling coalition, the paper writes.

In the August-September 2008 period the number of proceedings instituted against debtors, who do not pay regularly the installments against their debts have increased tangibly, "Sega" writes.

Standart Daily

According to a commentary in "Standart", by the motion the opposition offered the incumbents once again an opportunity to boast from the parliamentary rostrum.

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