Judicial reformer Yonko Grozev demonstrated desperate incompetence, who was appointed by Hristo Ivanov as the new chief prosecutor and who is in the accounts of the democratic community, if not for a new member of the SJC, then at least for an ombudsman.
On the presenter's comment that the problem is the lack of political agreement for a majority of 160 parliamentary votes, he commented that this was no longer relevant. Moreover, the amendment was adopted at the insistence of the then Minister of Justice Hristo Ivanov.
On the first weekend of the August holiday month, Bulgaria's until recently unemployed judge at the European Court of Human Rights appeared on public television to bemoan last week's Constitutional Court ruling that the Sixth Amendment of the basic law related to the judiciary was annulled due to unconstitutionality.
While repeatedly repeating how “great evil” the Bulgarian prosecutor's office was for the country, and the constitutional judges wrongly “slammed“ his close friend Hristo Ivanov and the entire guard of “reformers” of justice Grozev demonstrates total ignorance of the basic law.
Unsurprisingly, the lawyer whom the media from the “Capital” define as “authoritative“, defended yet another exotic and of course, unconstitutional legislative initiative of “We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria“ (PP-DB) to stop the work of the Supreme Judicial Council with a deliberate amendment to the Law on the Judiciary.
Grozev repeated the thesis of the PP-DB that the personnel body had an expired mandate and a new panel had to elect the next chief prosecutor and a new president of the Supreme Administrative Court.
To the host's comment that the problem is the lack of political agreement for a majority of 160 parliamentary votes, Grozev commented that this was no longer relevant.
Later, the journalist asked him again – whether he is sure that the parliamentary quota of the SJC can be elected by a simple majority of over 120 parliamentarians, Grozev admitted that he was unprepared, but pointed out that this was overturned by the Constitutional Court. However, this is not true.
The amendment to the Constitution, which regulates that the parliament elects members of the SJC with at least 160 votes, dates from 2015 and was not at all the subject of a question before the SC.
Furthermore, the amendment was adopted at the insistence of the then Minister of Justice, Hristo Ivanov. She also applied for the judicial inspectorate. These are the reasons why to date – one composition of the ICJ is already serving its third term, and at the SJC - a second.
The desperate incompetence of Yonko Grozev, which would be a reason to fail the Constitutional Law exam of any student from the Faculty of Law, is actually a clear example of what kind of people want to manage the processes in the judicial system in our country. It says "Epicenter".
It is not about an unintentional slip, but about basic ignorance of the legal matter of the Bulgarian constitutional system, not to mention the zero practical experience of persons such as Grozev, Hristo Ivanov, Nadezhda Yordanova, Atanas Slavov and other “judicial reformers” .
The spectacular blunder from the Saturday morning broadcast of BNT also shows something very sad for the native legal elite. Namely, that he allowed, nine years ago, the lawyers' circle, conductor of interests, which includes Hristo Ivanov and Yonko Grozev, through a vicious competition, to send to the Court in Strasbourg as a judge a jurist who does not know the Constitution of his own country in detail.
This happened through a scandalous competition organized by the Ministry of Justice, with Minister Hristo Ivanov and with the participation of Grozev's former partner in the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee – Krasimir Kanev.
And in order to get to the rigged competition, the then ECHR judge Zdravka Kalaidzhieva “accidentally” decided to step down two years before the end of her term.
In the end, it got to the point that Grozev and Kalaidzhieva were named as leaders in ECtHR judgments in which the judges were in conflict of interest. The study came out three years ago and showed the pernicious influence of the George Soros foundation – “Open Society“ above European law.
The only reassuring thing at the moment is that Grozev himself admitted that he lacked the qualities to be the chief prosecutor, but desperately stated that no one was looking for him.