Author: Alexander Detev
DV: Why did so many people protest on Wednesday evening in Sofia, Varna and other cities?
Alexander Kashumov: What the whole of Bulgaria is protesting about is against a deteriorating state of the judicial system in the last, I would say, 15 years, the use of the prosecutor's office in particular for orders, for the deterioration of democracy, for favoring some political forces over others and favoring some economic-political interests, which ultimately has a danger of leading to a dictatorship.
Circumstances and facts that we see happening all over the world, including in this world that was democratic until recently. Bulgaria is more threatened than ever, because the world is more threatened than ever, and we have not yet strengthened democracy.
DV: This vaudeville, which was put together by a number of institutions - the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Prosecutor's Office, the Sofia City Court - how serious a blow does this represent against democracy and does it threaten its foundations?
Alexander Kashumov: This is a repetition of the scenario with Desislava Ivancheva and Bilyana Petrova years ago. But now it is on a much larger scale, because we see an organization of the actions, as a series of opposition politicians have been attacked. We also see that the lessons of 2018 have not been learned. If society and institutions had stopped the outrages then, we would not have come this far.
It is extremely worrying that security forces are entering people's homes. A mayor undoubtedly cannot hide - the mayor of one of the three largest cities in Bulgaria. This categorically leads to the illegality of the actions from the point of view of the European Convention on Human Rights and it is absolutely outrageous that families with children, with babies, are subjected to such a thing. This, unfortunately, brings us closer to the place from which we have pushed ourselves away - to Russia and Asia. I think that young people in Bulgaria, who have been approaching civilization step by step for 35 years, do not want this. I think that reasonable and honest people in Bulgaria do not want this - and I hope that we will stop it.
DV: Do you think that justice is a cause that the entire society can accept - because even now it is alien to large groups in society.
Alexander Kashumov: This is normal, because many people have not had contact with the judicial system. Secondly, in court one wins, the other loses. In the past, there have been protests in front of courthouses by so-called patriots, i.e. people close to Putin and Putinism, who aimed at something completely different - to undermine the independent judicial system.
However, now the task is different - the point is that we still have enough judges, magistrates, who are impartial and want to be honest. However, they now need the support of society, because those forces that seize power after power - executive power, legislative power - have now slipped, have spread their tentacles to local government and the judiciary. They must be stopped somewhere. This is the meaning of the democratic separation of powers and the balance of powers that exists in every democracy. That is why it is now more important than ever for us to come out here - not for anything else, but to give courage to independent judges to rule independently, as is expected in a state governed by the rule of law.
Alexander Kashumov is a lawyer and executive director of the "Access to Information Program" foundation.