site.btaCC-DB's Assen Vassilev: Constitutional Changes Mean One Person Can No Longer Appoint All Government, At Least Two Must Agree

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) MP Assen Vassilev told the morning programme of bTV on Wednesday that with the most recent amendments to Bulgaria's Constitution one person can no longer appoint all government officials, at least two have to be on the same page.

According to Vassilev, the failed formation of a caretaker government is due to "an obvious disagreement between the President and the prime minister-designate. "With the changes in the Constitution, one person, like Louis XIV, can no longer single-handedly appoint all the power, at least two people have to get along, and we see that this is quite complicated in this case," he added.

Vassilev said that the constitutional changes that his party proposed were that the regular cabinet appointed by Parliament should remain until a new cabinet is elected. He noted that the idea had been reformulated in Parliament - to appoint a caretaker cabinet, but to appoint it from a list of people, with the main argument of constitutionalists being that the President should still have the right to choose, "he cannot just rubber-stamp a previous cabinet".

Vassilev said that the practice is not unique to Bulgaria and that it exists in several European countries too. Commenting on the potential caretaker prime ministers of the Central Bank, Vassilev said that there was no problem for them to take up the prime ministerial post, but it was a problem for them to regain their position in the Central Bank afterwards. Vassilev said that the candidates from the National Audit Office also do not have a problem. "The problem with Dimitar Glavchev arose because he also became a minister [of Foreign Affairs] and not just prime minister," he said.

The individuals eligible to become caretaker Prime Minister were narrowed to a pool of senior office holders by the latest amendments to the Constitution, adopted in December 2023. That pool includes the Chair of the National Assembly, the Governor or a Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), the President or a Vice President of the National Audit Office, and the Ombudsman or a Deputy Ombudsman.