“Yesterday's elections have both their big winner – – “Progressive Bulgaria“ and their big losers – the long-standing political producers of the corrupt status quo in the judiciary“. This was stated by the Minister of Justice Andrey Yankulov on Facebook.
”How the caretaker government coped with its main task – organizing a fair vote – should be assessed by citizens. And this assessment seems unambiguous.
From now on, one of the critically important topics for the future of Bulgaria is how this enormous public support for change in the judiciary will be transformed into political action.
The real catastrophe resulting from the parties that tried in every way to protect the judicial system from change shows that it is understood by citizens as inevitable. It will no longer be possible for the otherwise vocal spokesmen of the judicial status quo to convince us that this is not on the people's agenda. By giving their votes to a significant majority of political entities that clearly declared themselves in favor of such a change, Bulgarian citizens have stated beyond any doubt how important it is to them.
I would like to believe that the restoration of legality in the management of the prosecutor's office will be the first small step towards change.
This step should not wait for the election of a new composition of the Supreme Judicial Council. It is important that this election happens quickly, but it is even more important that it happens qualitatively, which excludes speed at all costs - because guarantees are needed that honest professionals will be elected who will follow the public interest in an independent, not party-dominated, judicial system. We have already seen that the previous one did not end well for those who produced it, albeit with a delay.
In the meantime, the judicial system should not spend many more months with a chief prosecutor at the head of the prosecutor's office, who is there contrary to the law and morality. This is a situation that deeply corrupts the rule of law, which, I say once again, cannot be tolerated for another day.
The Supreme Judicial Council, and in particular its prosecutorial college, were given enough chances during these two months to realize what is happening and that they are striving to protect the unprotectable. They did not understand it and did not take advantage of it to get out of the situation with some professional honor. If they continue to be unable to do so, the new parliament can resolve the issue for them with a simple legislative action in its first days.
It will be a matter of will only“, concluded Yankulov.