site.btaUPDATED President Refers Constitutional Revisions to Constitutional Court

President Rumen Radev Monday challenged the constitutionality of revisions to the Constitutions that were adopted by Parliament and gazette in the last days of 2023, said his press secretariat. “The President believes that the revisions, apart from being at odds with other constitutional revisions, undermine the checks and balances between the state institutions, affect directly the form of state government and are within the competence of a Grand National Assembly,” the press release by the President’s Office reads. Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov rejected the President's arguments and said that Radev has abused his powers and cannot judge objectively.

Later in the day, the Constitutional Court said it is opening a case at the President's request.

The changes in the country's basic law were adopted on December 20. 237 of the 240 MPs took part in the vote. 165 of them (of GERB-UDF, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms) backed them. 71 MPs (of BSP for Bulgaria, Vazrazhdane and There Is Such a People) voted against. Boyko Rashkov of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria abstained.

On January 6, Radev said the first thing he was going to do in the new year was “to alert the Constitutional Court to the brutal and in many aspects incompetent assault on the country’s constitution”. But that had been expected as the President said right after the revisions were adopted that he would challenge them.

The President challenges the constitutionality of:

• provisions giving the right to people with dual citizenship to be MPs and ministers;
• the possibility to set qualified majorities by law for the election of the leadership of state bodies;
• the procedure for appointing a caretaker government; and
• provisions regulating the term of various bodies in the legislature. 

With regard to the amendments to Chapter Six of the Constitution (Judiciary), he contests the constitutionality of the changes that set in place a procedure for appointing the Presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Prosecutor General, without a presidential decree. 

The President also challenges the procedure Parliament followed as it amended the Constitution. "The Constitution can be amended either by a large political majority and quickly (without a time limit between the three separate voting days), or with a smaller political majority but slowly (with a minimum time limit of two months between the different voting days)," the President argues, adding that in this case the revisions were adopted hastily with the minimum required majority and without substantive discussion. 

PM Denkov: Constitutional revisions are in the best interest of Bulgarian people, President cannot judge objectively

The President's challenge of the constitutional revisions was commented by Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov during a visit to the northwestern town of Montana on Monday. He said that the changes are in the best interest of Bulgarian people and that the President cannot judge objectively since he had overstepped his powers. "You cannot, in a parliamentary republic, let one person, whoever he may be, run the country for years without parliamentary oversight. There is no way that the President, who has abused his powers, can be the judge. The only judge can be the Constitutional Court," Denkov said.

Denkov reiterated what he has said previously: that the President is an interested side because the changes concerning the appointment of a caretaker government - which is within the presidential powers - affect him. "These changes curtail rights that have been abused in the recent years," Denkov said.