According to the Constitution, when the president resigns, his powers are terminated by a decision of the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court must establish this fact. No such application has been filed at the moment. This was stated by constitutional judge Prof. Yanaki Stoilov to bTV regarding the numerous speculations that in the upcoming address by the head of state Rumen Radev to the nation, the president will announce his resignation.
He explained that a deadline is not set in most proceedings, as, for example, there is one when contesting the results of parliamentary elections. In this case, the Constitutional Court must only establish the expressed will of the person. A parallel can be drawn with the resignation of the Vice President in 1993, when the Constitutional Court ruled in a few days.
When asked what would happen if there was a majority in the Constitutional Court that decided not to remove the president from office, he specified: “I would not allow it. I do not want to enter into any hypotheses that may exist. I do not think that this would make it difficult for the Constitutional Court to rule on such an issue. When the president resigns, the powers of the head of state pass to the Vice President until the end of his term. The replacement of the president occurs with the Constitutional Court's ruling. Without this, the effect of the resignation cannot take place.“
“In my opinion, this change in the Constitution to limit the circle of persons holding state positions, such as potential acting prime ministers, has changed the balance in the relations between the National Assembly and the president. The last change to the Constitution was a deformation of the institution of the caretaker government – you see how many questions arise“, he commented on the so-called “home book“.
“An absurd situation“ he called the fact that in one person the qualities of the Speaker of the National Assembly, caretaker Prime Minister and president can be combined: “Even Todor Zhivkov only combined two of these posts.“
He drew attention to the fact that no one is responsible for the caretaker government anymore – neither the president, because he is limited in his choices, nor the parliament, because it does not elect the government.
“The electoral process must be predictable, traceable and verifiable. Let everyone answer for themselves whether what is currently being done in the National Assembly meets these fundamental requirements. "Some of the actions currently underway are aimed at repelling undecided voters," said Prof. Stoilov.