site.btaPolitical Reactions to Constitutional Court's Decision on Basic Law Revisions on Judiciary

All political entities in Parliament, with the exception of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), commented on Friday's decision of the Constitutional Court to declare as unconstitutional some of the revisions to the country’s basic law passed on December 20, 2023.

Reasoning its judgement earlier in the day, the Court largely argued that such amendments to the Constitution can only be introduced by a Grand National Assembly.

The judgment found invalid all constitutional revisions that replaced the existing Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) with a separate Supreme Judicial Council and Supreme Prosecutorial Council. This reform was prompted by the need to increase judges' independence and enhance the accountability of prosecutors and investigating magistrates. Again, the SJC Plenum will be empowered to elect a prosecutor general rather than the Supreme Prosecutorial Council, and the chief prosecutor will be in office for seven instead of five years. He or she will be reinvested with the power to exercise supervision as to legality, provide methodological guidance regarding the work of all prosecutors, and approach the Constitutional Court without restriction.

The Court concurred with a provision of the revisions according to which the structure of the prosecution service must correspond to the structure of the courts examining criminal cases, which entails the closure of the Supreme Administrative Prosecution Office.

Because of a split vote, three of the revisions were left standing: the options for the appointment of a caretaker prime minister limited to ten senior office holders, the continuance of Parliament’s life while a caretaker cabinet is in office, and the scrapping of Bulgarian citizenship only as an eligibility requirement for MPs and government ministers subject to 18 months' residence qualifications.

GERB-UDF

GERB-UDF Floor Leader Boyko Borissov said that since the revisions were moved by GERB-UDF, CC-DB, and MRF, all three parliamentary entities carry the responsibility. Hopeful that the judicial reform was right, he said that he does not regret GERB supporting the amendments. Asked about the people who wrote the text that limits the President's choice when it comes to appointing a caretaker prime minister, Borissov said that "all this was done by [CC-DB Co-chair] Hristo Ivanov and [MRF Co-chair Delyan] Peevski, and we supported them".

CC-DB

Continue the Change co-leader Kiril Petkov said that following Friday's judgement it becаme clear that the "state capture system wants the lack of justice to remain". Petkov was adamant that the prosecution service and the judiciary in Bulgaria do not work for the people. "The only thing left is that the Prosecutor General can be investigated. There is a long way to go in order to fix our country," Petkov said.

Atanas Atanassov, Deputy Parliament Chair of CC-DB and Democratic Bulgaria co-leader, said that both legal and purely political motives stand behind the Court’s judgment.

Vazrazhdane

Describing the ruling as piecemeal, Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov said that the Court has proven to be "unconstitutional" and "privately owned". "Over the years, we have seen that two lobbies are fighting for control of the judiciary - on the one hand, Peevski, who currently owns it, on the other, the lobby around CC-DB and [entrepreneur and Capital's publisher] Prokopiev, who wanted to control the system," Kostadinov said.

Bulgarian Socialist Party

Bulgarian Socialist Party acting leader Atanas Zafirov said that they saw this ruling coming. "I am happy that what we have been saying, about the sloppy revisions in the chapter on judicial power, was proven right by the Constitutional Court decision," he added. Zafirov stressed that the reform was carried out "unprofessionally and had many controversial aspects".

There Is Such a People

There Is Such a People Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov said that the judicial reform was badly implemented and described the Constitutional Court as "politically dominated" because the revisions concerning the appointment of a caretaker prime minister are left standing. Asked which parties have taken control of the Court, Yordanov pointed to CC-DB, GERB and MRF. "The Constitutional Court cannot rule on whether the reforms are right or wrong because two of the judges are political appointees from the period when the changes in the Constitution were made," Yordanov said, referring to Desislava Atanasova and Borislav Belazelkov.