site.btaPublic Very Critical of Prosecution Leaders, Has High Expectations – BILI Survey

Ivan Geshev and Borislav Sarafov receive critically low marks from the public for their performance as leaders of the Bulgarian prosecution service as people have very high expectations of the prosecutor general. The judicial reform remains an important priority to Bulgarians, although they feel it has reached an impasse. The conclusions were drawn in a nationwide representative survey commissioned by the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives (BILI) and conducted by the marketing and sociological research agency Global Metrics.

The survey shows that in late December 2024 public assessments of the work of the prosecution service over the past 10 years were predominantly low, reflecting the low levels of public confidence in the institution registered in other sociological studies and analyses.

On a scale of 2 to 6 (used in the standard grading system in Bulgarian schools), where 2 stands for "poor" and 6 for "excellent", public ratings of the performance of the prosecution magistracy under prosecutors general Sotir Tsatsarov (BILI survey, 2019), Ivan Geshev and Borislav Sarafov basically range between 2 points ("poor") and 3 points ("barely satisfactory"). For Tsatsarov's term (2012-2019), the average rating is 3.05, Geshev (2019-2023) gets 2.75 points, and Sarafov (as acting prosecutor general, from 2023 to the present) is rated with 2.81 points.

While people are critical of Tsatsarov's work, their opinions of his performance are closer to the more moderate part of the scale. In Geshev's case, "poor" marks are twice as many as those for Tsatsarov. Perceptions of Sarafov's performance are basically along the same lines as those of Geshev, albeit somewhat softer. Opinions about all three prosecution leaders are highly critical, which indicates poor results in suppressing conventional crime and curbing high-level corruption. People tend to see the actions of the prosecution service in these areas as campaign-driven, and they believe that the service is used for political purposes while the prosecutor general brings no benefits for society, BILI commented.

Over two-thirds of adult Bulgarians feel that the judicial reform has reached a stalemate and some of its main aspects remain unfulfilled. Between one-fifth and one-third of respondents see some positive results in certain domains but evaluate them as weak. The main reasons for the failed judicial reform, according to the public opinion, have to do with the interests of various social circles who are working against the reform (56%), the political crisis (37%), and a lack of political will for reform (35%). One respondent in three points to a lack of will among the magistrates themselves, which shows that, from the perspective of the public opinion, no one is "innocent" when it comes to the failure of the reform, BILI says.

As a counterpoint, the view about an absence of public support for the judicial reform is shared by just 9% of respondents in the survey. A broad consensus exists about the importance of the judicial reform. Approximately 75% of the people find that the judicial reform is very important, and another 20% believe it is relatively important. Bulgarians suggest a wide range of objectives of the judicial reform, most importantly: real and effective actions against high-level corruption (81%), independence of the courts (75%), an expeditious court process (61%), fight against conventional crime (55%), an accountable and effective prosecution service (54%), and fight against domestic violence (50%).

In conclusion, BILI says the public opinion offers strong support and suggests clear priorities for the judicial reform but is highly dissatisfied with the absence of results.

The nationwide representative survey was conducted among 1,020 adult citizens of Bulgaria through standard face-to-face interviews using tablet computers between November 26 and December 15, 2024.