The big question is whether the SJC can suspend a text from the Constitution, after the Constitutional Court itself has not declared it unconstitutional, and restart last year's procedure for electing the chief prosecutor, as if nothing had happened. No way! The Constitution is the supreme law and a procedure under ordinary legislation cannot suspend a constitutional text.
This is what the former Minister of Justice Atanas Slavov, lawyer, specialist in constitutional law, told the BNR.
"What is extremely worrying from the point of view of both the law and the Constitution is the activation of the Supreme Judicial Council and the restarting of the procedure for the election of a new chief prosecutor, given that we have an effective constitutional text , it has not been repealed, although it is a text from the transitional and final provisions of the adopted amendments to the Constitution -paragraph 23, which very clearly states that the two colleges - the judicial and the prosecutorial - cannot perform their functions under election of the highest leaders in the system - chief prosecutor, chairman of the Supreme Judicial Court and chairman of the Supreme Court, until a new Supreme Judicial Council is elected, and according to the then text of the Constitution - two new councils", he explained.
"I do not rule out that Borislav Sarafov initially had plans to be elected as a permanent chief prosecutor. "I don't know what his career plans are now," Prof. Slavov also commented.
If we want to be a country governed by the rule of law, the changes in the Constitution, in the part about the judiciary, will happen, the constitutionalist believes and recalled that they were subjected to serious international analysis and monitoring and the reports on these changes were positive:
"Unfortunately, we have not been able to protect them sufficiently before the Constitutional Court".
According to Slavov, it is indisputable that over the past years, Delyan Peevski has built and expanded his influence in the judicial system - both in court, in the prosecutor's office, and in the investigation:
"There are very serious suspicions of a connection with the leadership of the Supreme Administrative Court, publicly expressed and with the relevant arguments and motives".
In the show "Something more" Atanas Slavov emphasized that the PP-DB is looking for support to be one of the mandate holders in the next parliament, "so that Bulgaria can be governed in the interest of the Bulgarian citizens":
"At the moment, we see how this government of shared responsibility between Borisov and Peevski governs the country - we are in free fall mode. And the alternatives are getting worse every day. From "Revival" play with the theme of "foreign agents" not for the first time. Active propaganda is being conducted against various Bulgarian communities, teachers are being pushed to the wall with legislative proposals from the populists. This can't go on! We are fighting for Bulgaria to have a regular government after these elections. It will not be easy, compromises will be necessary, that must be clearly said. But we, if we do not secure a regular government elected by the parliament, will come to a final crisis of the parliamentary system of government and to experiment with all possible alternatives. They are neither positive nor good - whether they will be called presidential rule, semi-presidential or some mild form of authoritarianism. This is the real threat we face in the coming months and year.
Slavov was adamant that in order to overcome the crisis, it is necessary to go through a longer administration elected by the National Assembly:
"We must restore the normal mode of operation of the institutions. All the main aspects of public administration can be renewed and legitimized through a new National Assembly. If we fail to do this, the experience of countries in the eastern part of Europe is sufficiently indicative - democratic collapse and some form of authoritarian rule".