President challenged the constitutionality of the election of two new Constitutional Court judges

The President on January 23 challenged the constitutionality of the election of two new Constitutional Court judges, Desislava Atanasova and Borislav Belazelkov. One of the reasons is that the Parliament's decision stipulates a nine-year term of office for them, given that two years of it have expired.

Rumen Radev also urged Atanasova and Belazelkov not to take the oath of office until the Constitutional Court rules on the case.

The two new judges were elected on Friday with the votes of the constitutional majority - GERB-UDF, We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria and MRF. Today, all three political formations counter-attacked and accused the President of seeking conflict with the Parliament.

President Radev referred the matter to the Constitutional Court with a request to declare Parliament's decisions on the election of constitutional judges as unconstitutional.

Rumen Radev believes that it is extremely important for the Bulgarian statehood that the prestige of the Constitutional Court be protected. According to him, the majority in Parliament is trying to circumvent the Constitutional Court's decision on the term of office of the newly elected constitutional judges.

In his reasoning, the President recalled a newly adopted article of the Constitution that obliges the National Assembly to respect the principles of openness, transparency, publicity and reasonableness when selecting members of bodies to ensure their independence.

According to the Head of State, these principles have been violated and cannot be replaced by formal deliberations and procedures aimed at legitimising a prior agreement between the ruling political parties. According to Radev, there is also a conscious attempt by the majority of MPs to circumvent the Constitutional Court's decisions regarding the term of office.

The President recalled that non-compliance with the Constitutional Court's decisions is a violation of the Constitution itself. Rumen Radev notes that such an approach cannot be tolerated and poses a risk to the prestige of the Constitutional Court.

The Head of State stressed that it is of utmost importance for the Bulgarian statehood that this prestige be protected. That is why President Rumen Radev calls for the newly elected constitutional judges not to be sworn in until the Constitutional Court itself has ruled on the compliance of their election with the constitutional procedures and requirements.

Immediately after the President's position, a sharp reaction followed from the parties supporting the government. According to GERB-UDF, Rumen Radev once again shows his disagreement with the Parliament, which adopts important laws and decisions.

"Which clearly contradicts his understanding of the one-man governance of the state, as we have seen during the rule of the caretaker cabinets. The President once again shows that he seeks conflict with the National Assembly for one purpose only - to weaken the stable parliamentary majority, which has the important task of carrying out reforms," said Raya Nazarian, GERB-UDF.

GERB noted that the judges from the presidential quota are elected unilaterally by the head of state. They insist that he should not put pressure on the CC.

"The procedure that the National Assembly conducted for the election of constitutional judges was publicly transparent and open. This publicity and openness, and the President will owe it at the time when he has to appoint constitutional judges from his quota. He will owe it to the public to have this openness and not just appoint them unilaterally. We urge the President not to put pressure on the independent CC," added Raya Nazarian.

According to WCC-DB, the President has the right to refer to the CC, but clarified.

"What is brutal on his part is that he is trying to sabotage the activities of the CC by calling for the oath-taking not to take place. That is unacceptable. The behaviour does not surprise me because since the beginning of this National Assembly, the President has clearly expressed his negative attitude towards the Parliament, towards the majority, towards the government," added Atanas Atanasov, co-chair of WCC-DB.

Atanasov noted that there was both transparency and publicity in the election of the two constitutional judges, but he had not heard that there was such publicity in the election of the judges from the presidential quota. On the dispute whether the term of office of the constitutional judges elected from the quota of the Parliament should be 7 or 9 years, Atanasov said:

"The Constitution states that judges have a 9-year term in office. And I don't know on what grounds anyone wants to shorten this term," Atanas Atanasov said.

According to the MRF, with today's reaction the President is announcing his "March 3" project and is trying to go to war with the Euro-Atlantic majority. Delyan Peevski described him as a pro-Russian President.

"I advise him not to bother with this and just resign, today, and launch his project for a party and go out, to elections, and not hide behind his immunity. My view is that the President is afraid to come out as the leader of this party. He would again put forward some yappy dog, as he had done before. I watched Ninova today advising him to jump - he is jumping. First to decide if he is her circus dog or if he is going to be party leader. I think he is afraid to found a party because he is afraid for his immunity," Delyan Peevski added.

He urged the media to ask what is going on with the investigation against President Radev, what relations he has with the Prosecutor General and whether there are any cases pending.

"The corruption ring around him is monstrous, with his advisers. Where did the Silk Road sink? Where did Sotir Ushev sink? Who is the Treasurer? These are many questions. If we have a prosecutor's office, ask them! I hope after we make the new Judiciary Law, there will be a Prosecutor's office, there will be services, there will be investigations, because this is impossible. Some people with the money they collected, they have been making a party for two years. You have to ask the questions. The President should stop sinking in comfort, he should come out and give answers, because for me thespotlight should be on the Presidency - a dark institution full of a lot of cash," Peevski added.

"Vazrazhdane" party confirmed that they will refer the matter to the Constitutional Court. The Bulgarian Socialist Party issued a statement noting that the parliamentary group voted "against" the election of the two constitutional judges. They said they had urged the President to block the election and he had done so. For them, this is the right decision.