“Complex contradictions arise in the implementation of changes to the Constitution”

An postponed meeting of the Citizens’ Council at the SJC was held on Friday in Veliko Tarnovo on the occasion of the celebration of 145 years since the adoption of the Tarnovo Constitution

The meeting was attended by members of the judicial and prosecutor’s collegium, administrative heads of judicial authorities from

Appellate district – Veliko Tarnovo, and the dean of the Faculty of Law of VTU, Prof. Ph.D. Georgi Mitov.

The working forum proceeded with a discussion on the problems that arose during the practical implementation of the changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria adopted in December 2023 and the likelihood of a constitutional crisis in the governance of the state.

“I think that the new texts in the Constitution managed to deal with the first challenge – the composition of the official parliament in the conditions of an active parliament.

A vote of no confidence in the National Assembly against the official government is not foreseen, parliamentary control should be carried out not with this power, as in the case of a cabinet elected by the parliament, since the official cabinet cannot be removed, not even with a vote of no confidence. This request from the parliamentary groups for a vote of no confidence is inadmissible. As for personnel changes and the dismissal of individual ministers, the Constitution states that the president appoints a government. Can individual ministers be appointed, I think that the Constitution should be read carefully. We have such examples from previous administrations for the release of individual ministers”, commented lawyer Emil Georgiev, chairman of the Association of Free Lawyers – part of the Civil Council of the SJC.

Svetla Dermendzhieva, one of the co-chairs of the Citizens’ Council of the SJC, stated before the discussion that after the changes in the Constitution, serious contradictions arise in their implementation in practice, but we cannot yet speak of a constitutional crisis.

“Things are quite complicated and in practice it can be seen that there are serious contradictions in the implementation of these changes, they make it difficult to implement the regulations. As for the requested vote of no confidence, it would seriously complicate the implementation of even those changes that are in the Constitution, and I personally cannot say which is the normative path along which these processes should move”, emphasized Dermendzhieva.

Veselina ANGELOVA

Photos by the author