site.btaDesislava Atanasova's Appointment to Venice Commission: Prime Minister Stresses Her Track Record as MP, Lawyer Urges Public Protest

Desislava Atanasova's appointment as a member of the Venice Commission has sparked a controversy about whether she is competent to hold such a post. She received the appointment after serving about a year as a constitutional judge in Bulgaria, an episode which also met with bitter reactions from critics who called into question Atanasova's qualifications to work in the Constitutional Court. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and Constitutional Court member Yanaki Stoilov provided explanations on the matter. Meanwhile, a lawyer posted a message on Facebook calling for a public protest against Atanasova.

Prime Minister Zhelyazkov said at a briefing on Tuesday that Atanasova's many years of experience in the National Assembly were the main consideration underpinning her January 31 appointment to the Venice Commission (officially European Commission for Democracy through Law). The briefing followed a meeting of the Joint Governance Council earlier in the day.

Zhelyazkov noted that the matters discussed in the Venice Commission are related mainly to the line of activity of national parliaments. He said the government appointed Atanasova as a member of the Venice Commission and Borislav Belazelkov as a substitute member after Bulgaria was not represented on the Commission for a year following Filip Dimitrov's stint. The Prime Minister specified that this was a decision of the government, not the ruling coalition.

Writing on Facebook, lawyer Atanas Kostov called for a rally in Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria on February 7 to protest "the absurdities in the Bulgarian legal system" and the appointment of an "incompetent" representative to the Venice Commission. Kostov said that Atanasova, who "has never worked as a lawyer, only as an ordinary jurisconsult in a psychiatric hospital," is set to represent Bulgaria "in Europe's supreme authority on direct democracy." Kostov also lashed out at Atanasova's past performance as an MP, blaming her for "statements and legal moves in Parliament verging on absurdity."