site.btaParliament Chair: 2023 Constitutional Amendments Gave Legislature Too Much Power

National Assembly Chair Nataliya Kiselova believes that the December 2023 amendments to the Bulgarian Constitution were an attempt to empower the legislature to look for ways out of political crises, but the changes were poorly thought-through and gave the MPs too much power. On Tuesday, Kiselova spoke to students and teaching staff of the Law Faculty at the University of Plovdiv during a three-day conference occasioned by Constitution Day (April 16).

Among other effects, the amendments to the Constitution limited the powers of the President of Bulgaria in appointing a caretaker prime minister and required him to consult the parliamentary groups before appointing a caretaker cabinet. The revisions restructured the Supreme Judicial Council and provided for the establishment of a separate Supreme Prosecutorial Council.

During the roundtable discussion at the University of Plovdiv, the Bulgarian President’s Legal Affairs Secretary Krum Zarkov commented: “The worst setback is that the constitutional amendments were made for political expediency.”

The discussion was titled “Evolution of the Constitution” and was moderated by law professor Hristo Paunov. According to Paunov, the Constitution has self-preservation mechanisms, which, however, have been shaken to some extent.