Sega Daily

"Agriculture Minister Shocked by SANS Raid:" under this front-page headline, "Sega" reports that prosecutors, investigators and agents of the State Agency for National Security (SANS) raided the Agriculture Ministry and the State Forestry Agency on Wednesday in search for false documents on land and forest swaps. "Agriculture Minister Valeri Tsvetanov was outraged by the operation because nobody had warned him. While the search was in progress, he was opening a wine exhibition in Plovdiv. Prosecutor Nikolai Roussinov explained that the law-enforcers are checking an alert about a switch of dates so as to evade the moratorium on forest and land swaps. Contracts concluded in February and March, when the deals were already frozen, have been seized."

"The King will fall into Dogan's clutches at the last minute," "Sega" comments. "What we know for sure about the intentions of the King is that he wants to stay in power at any rate. First, in order to settle, once and for all, his property issue and, secondly, because of the need of guarantees that the restitution will be an irreversible process. As to MRF leader Ahmed Dogan, we are certain that he is fevereshly seeking a European legitimation because his overseas partners mistrust him due to the 'ethnic Tirkish party' label. It is precisely because of the importance of this mission that the MRF wants to take cover behind Bulgaria's 'European face', as the NMSS likes to style itself. The royal party people stubbornly deny any possibility of closeness with Dogan's party in a bid to keep the last few supporters they have been left with. And they will fall into the clutches of the beast at the last minute, when it will be too late for disappointments."

Trud Daily

"Trud" writes that National Movement for Surge and Stability (NMSS) leader Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Wednesday dismayed his own party top crust by breaking the news that he is discussing with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) a joint participation in the elections within the framework of a single Liberal coalition. "Naturally, the topic is being discussed, this is logical. It is a matter of judgement, strategy, tactics and entirely depends on the current situation," he said, asked whether any talks to this end are underway between the NMSS and the MRF. Just three days ago, the NMSS Press Centre circulated an official statement which categorically declared that the party will run on a straight ticket in the national and European elections.

"Europe Likes UDF-DSB Alliance," writes "Trud". "The coalition between the Union of Democratic Forces [UDF] and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria [DSB] enjoys broad international support, including from the leadershop of the European People's Party," Dr Andreas von Below, Director of the Sofia Office of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation, said on Wednesday. He hosted a meeting of the right wingers in Cadenabbia. Dr von Below welcomed the opportunity of a right-of-centre government of GERB and the Right after the elections.

"Trud" reports that the MRF wants the day of reflection before the European elections to be scrapped and the campaign to be cut short from one month to three weeks. This is provided for by a bill by Hristo Bisserov amending the MEP Elections Act. The draft legislation was considered on Wednesday by the ad hoc parliamentary committee on election legislation along with three other bills: of the BSP, of the UDF, and of Independent MP Luchezar Ivanov.

Sculptor Vejdi Rashidov writes in "Trud:" "Once so much money is available for religious schools, churches and mosques, for printing all sorts of religious literatures and for hefty pay to the emissaries, why the State should not have the possibility and the funds to place in the hands of those children computers rather than the Koran, modern and world classics rather than religious psalms? Why those children should not rank equally with the children of the world at Olympiads in mathematics or chemistry? This would be more civilized, more future-oriented not only for the young but for the entire country. Because those young people are not just an electorate of a certain party, they are the State of which they are citizens."

"Trud" quotes independent MP Yane Yanev as describing Gurmen Municipality, Southwestern Bulgaria, Mayor Ahmed Bashev as "Gurmen's Ben Laden." "During all his terms in office, he has feudalized the municipality, using economic leverage. He is also using Islam to keep his economic empire, tiny as it is against the background of other oligarchs," Yanev said. After he alerted the SANS about dissemination of radical Islam in Gurmen, the Agency brought in for questioning the Mayor and Islam teacher Murat Boshnak several days ago.

"Trud" quotes State Commission on Information Security Chair Tsveta Markova as saying Wednesday, presenting to journalist her Commission's 2008 Annual Report, that 43 Bulgarians have access to NATO information classified as Cosmic Top Secret Atomal, and 273 have been cleared for access to information marked Cosmic Top Secret. The Bulgarian special services have withdrawn the classified information clearances of 184 Bulgarians, and in 2008 alone the withdrawals were 32.

24 Chasa Daily

"24 Chassa" quotes mathematician Mihail Konstantinov as saying "I fully support the idea to eliminate the day of reflection. This was sheer nonsense. An informed voter is not influenced by any days of reflection. I also welcome the idea to shorten the pointlessly long 30-day election campaign. Even two weeks are more than enough." For her part, sociologist Miroslava Radeva argues that "political communication, which is anyway frustrated, will become completely moribund if the election campaign is shortened and the day of reflection is scrapped. This situation is in essence an attempt to make the campaign a formality and to coerce voting."

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