site.btaTISP, Vazrazhdane Submit Friday's Second Constitutional Petition Regarding Caretaker Cabinets

The MPs of Vazrazhdane and There Is Such a People (TISP) have collected 53 signatures under a petition challenging revisions of the Constitution about caretaker cabinets, representatives of the two parties told reporters on Friday.

TISP's Toshko Yordanov said the petition was intended to sort out Parliament's failure to elect its chairperson, with every group seeing itself as a potential participant in the executive. TISP and Vazrazhdane have petitioned the Court before, but it did not rule on these matters because the judges from the political quotas [of the then ruling Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria and GERB-UDF] prevailed, Yordanov said. In his words, the new petition was prompted by the public interest.

Earlier on Friday, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)-United Left and Vazrazhdane petitioned the Constitutional Court to restore the President's powers in forming caretaker cabinets. Petar Petrov from Vazrazhdane said the reasoning behind the two petitions was different.

"Regardless of the different reasoning, we believe that the provisions on dual nationality and caretaker cabinets should be challenged," Petrov said. Now that the new Constitutional Court judges have been sworn in, the Court ought to rule on the matter, he added.

Aleksandar Rashev MP of TISP said the petition filed by Vazrazhdane and TISP meets all the requirements and offers sufficient reasoning and relevant case law of the Constitutional Court on the unconstitutionality of Article 99 (5) on caretaker governments, and of the provision on the eligibility of dual nationals for MPs.

Article 99 (5) of the Constitution as last amended on December 20, 2023 reads: "(...) the President, following consultations with the parliamentary groups and acting on a motion by the caretaker prime minister-designate, shall appoint a caretaker cabinet, and shall schedule new elections within two months. A caretaker prime minister shall be appointed from among the Chairperson of the National Assembly, the Governor or a Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, the President or a Vice-President of the Bulgarian National Audit Office, and the Ombudsman or a deputy thereof."

President Rumen Radev and 48 MPs of Vazrazhdane and TISP challenged the constitutionality of the amending law in early January. On July 26, because of a split 6-6 vote, the constitutional judges were unable to rule on three revisions: the President's 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 subject to 18 months' residence qualifications.