The issue of a referendum on the euro is not yet over from a legal point of view, said constitutional judge Prof. Yanaki Stoilov in “This Saturday and Sunday“. The Constitutional Court (CC) rejected a large part of President Rumen Radev's questions in connection with the returned request to hold a referendum on the introduction of the single European currency from 2026 – he was among the constitutional judges with a dissenting opinion.
According to him, the Constitutional Court has allowed one of the three requests of the head of state and it is yet to receive a response from the magistrates. From there, it depends on whether the institutions that have their own powers will take any action. According to him, this will become clear at the earliest by the end of the summer.
The admitted question is: “Can the Speaker of the National Assembly assess whether a referendum is admissible, and reject proposals to hold one“.
“It should be borne in mind that the interpretative decisions of the Constitutional Court are effective for the future, it explains the content of the legal provisions in a mandatory manner. The ambiguity does not come from the provisions in the Constitution, but from the way in which they are applied. Then the answer will depend on whether the request by the President can be renewed“, said Stoilov.
He specified that some of the judges in the Constitutional Court had a special opinion because the first question, which is the main one, was rejected. When asked whether their decision was such because they were all from the president's quota, Stoilov replied that his decision was not politically bound.
„The discussion here is not whether parliament can make a decision, it is the only body that can adopt such a valid decision, but what follows when a body has powers. For me, there is no doubt that parliament cannot resolve such issues through inaction. The bull must be taken by the horns, not by the tail“, commented Stoilov.
According to him, the case is similar in the selection of regulators. He asked what the consequences are when the bodies that the Constitution has designated to resolve certain problems are inactive.
„In the sociological surveys on the euro, why did no one ask the question: „How many Bulgarian citizens accept the official statistics and whether they believe that they accurately reflect the existing situation“. When in one year the price of electricity has increased by over 13%, and the statistics show that it is below 3%, is this possible? Everyone has an idea of the price levels in Bulgaria and their dynamics. Why don't they ask "How much, in your opinion, is the real inflation?", said Stoilov.
The constitutional judge commented that since these questions are not raised, other questions are raised. According to him, President Rumen Radev has the potential to create a political project, but the question is what would follow.