site.btaParliament Elects Ekaterina Zaharieva as New Justice Minister

Parliament Elects Ekaterina Zaharieva as New Justice Minister

Sofia, December 18 (BTA) - Ekaterina Zaharieva was elected as the new Justice Minister by Parliament on Friday. The vote was 126 in favour, 66 against and 17 abstentions.

GERB, the majority of the Reformist Bloc (RB) and part of the Bulgarian Democratic Centre (BDC) supported Zaharieva's nomination. The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), Ataka and one MP from the RB were against. Part of the Patriotic Front's, the RB's and the BDC's MPs abstained.

Parliament also voted on Hristo Ivanov's resignation from the post of justice minister. He resigned after Parliament refused to support constitutional revisions which he had proposed as part of the judicial reform.

Ekaterina Zaharieva: "Lets step on what has been achieved so far and bring debate back to the expert level"

"The debate about the judicial reform must be brought back to the expert level, to the judicial strategy council, where I expect support from the political parties, from the magistrates and from the NGO sector," said the newly elected Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva in Parliament.

The constitutional amendments are already a fact, she noted. "We could lose another two or three years explaining what we could do, but is not currently possible," she commented. According to her, however, there is another way - to step on what has been achieved so far, which is quite a lot, and change the laws in such a way as to bring back the confidence of magistrates and people's trust in them, along with the feeling of justice and its quality administration that everyone seeks.

Zaharieva noted that she will seek dialogue for the amendments to the Judiciary Act, proposed by the previous Justice Ministry team, along with the procedural codes and juvenile justice bill.

GERB and part of the RB supported Zaharieva's nomination, which they described as the best that could be done at this time, so that there is stability in the country. BSP, MRF and Ataka said that Zaharieva does not have experience as a lawyer, but rather as an administrator. GERB and the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB), which were partners until recently, voiced mutual political accusations. MRF brought up the need to hold early parliamentary elections.

MRF: There is an objective need for early parliamentary elections

MRF believes that there is an objective need to hold early parliamentary elections, not in order to stop the reforms, but the opposite - this Government is not in the condition to generate reforms, said MRF leader Lyutvi Mestan. He described DSB's withdrawal from Cabinet as proof that the incumbents are not about reforms and only talk about them.

Noting that there is nothing personal behind his decision not to support Zaharieva, DSB leader Radan Kanev said that there have been certain "specifics" in her career so far. "In a not so bad way, she has been taking posts, for which there had not been other candidates," he noted. Kanev once again brought up his two main points from recent days - that GERB does not have a justice minister candidate and that there is not a stable enough solution for the State's serious institutional crisis. With this nomination, the Government gives the green light for early elections, which MRF wants, he stressed.

Atanas Atanassov was the only RB MP who voted against Zaharieva's nomination. Part of the Bloc supported her, while others abstained. Atanassov explained that he voted against because it had transpired during the day that it does not matter who the justice minister will be. "As Boyko Borissov said, everything must be agreed with the Prosecutor General, Sotir Tsatsarov," he noted. The boundary between the Legislative, Executive and the prosecutorial powers is blurred, "and all of you in this hall know it but are silent," Atanassov went on to say.

Unlike his colleague Radan Kanev, the other co-floor leader of the RB, Nayden Zelengorski, promised to do everything possible to keep the Bloc united so that it can achieve its goals, among which are an effective judicial reform and anti-corruption legislation.

BSP leader Mihail Mikov said that nobody from the ruling majority wants to comment how the Government's policy in the field of justice will develop from now on, how it will interact with the Judiciary and Parliament. According to him, the personal changes are another attempt to fixate the situation in the Executive and a failed policy. Mikov noted that there could not be a better way to admit Cabinet's inability to deal with the problems in the sector, than Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's idea to have European observers for the judicial reform.

Ataka criticized Zaharieva for her lack of professional experience and her closeness to President Rosen Plevneliev. Her nomination is an insult to Bulgarian magistrates and it allows President Plevneliev and an oligarchic circle to triumphantly enter the Judiciary, said Ataka MP Magdalena Tasheva in Parliament.

Hristo Ivanov: The big question is what mandate Ekaterina Zaharieva will have

According to former justice minister Hristo Ivanov, Zaharieva presents opportunities to compensate for his mistakes, to restart and continue along the path that was outlined previously. "The big question is what her mandate will be and what kind of support she will get, whether we are merely patching a section of wallpaper that has fallen off, in order to conceal the ugly hole on the wall, or whether the political forces have come to understand this time, that this reform is very serious," Ivanov said. He sees Borissov's comment about inviting European experts to monitor the judicial reform as a very good sign, which deserves huge support.