Why right now, why right about this, why right against Kiril Petkov and why right from Borislav Sarafov? Three specific political goals are clearly visible in the actions of the Peevski-Sarafov tandem.
Comment from Veselin Stoynev:
The Acting Chief Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov requested the parliamentary immunity of the co-chairman of "Continuing the Change". (PP) Kiril Petkov, to be charged with a crime in his capacity as former prime minister. Because of an incident from 2 years and 8 months ago - the arrest of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, former Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov and GERB's publicist Sevdelina Arnaudova. In this case, it is not even important whether it is exactly a crime and what is the fault of other officials who may have taken illegal actions, despite the instructions from above. The questions are more important: why just now, why exactly for this, why exactly against Kiril Petkov and why precisely by Borislav Sarafov.
The prosecutor's office is at the center of the political crisis
In a truly legal state, these questions are absurd, because the normal answer is: when evidence of a crime has been gathered, regardless of who is accused and regardless of who is the number one prosecutor. But Bulgaria is not such a country, since the prosecutor's office suffers from a complete lack of public legitimacy - according to the latest data of "Alpha Research". since April, only 5% of Bulgarians give a positive assessment of the activities of the Prosecutor General. And since the figure of the chief prosecutor is at the center of the political crisis - from the changes in the Constitution and their cancellation, to the January 16 election of Sarafov as the chief prosecutor, which turns out to be the main stumbling block for forming a regular government.
Coincidental or not, but i.f. chief prosecutor Sarafov made his request for Kiril Petkov's immunity right on the World Anti-Corruption Day. The public accusations against him for involvement in the "Eight Dwarfs" circle, for wealth and for payments to relatives from a transport company did not find a convincing answer. More important is another coincidence - that the request for immunity comes just days after the PP-DB submitted to parliament a draft law to amend the Law on Judiciary, which would stop Sarafov's election as chief prosecutor, scheduled for January 16. and will also deprive him of the opportunity to perform the functions of one. And that this request was made on the eve of the consultations with the President on the delivery of the mandates to form a government. But regardless of whether Sarafov had a meeting on the same day with the leader of the "DPS-New Beginning" Delyan Peevski, as claimed by "Democratic Bulgaria", the coincidences speak clearly of such a relationship, which has long been in the focus of the political agenda. And several political goals are clearly visible from the actions of the number one accuser.
Attempt to torpedo cabinet talks
The first is to fail to form a government in order to go to elections - a goal declared almost every day by Delyan Peevski. With the attack on the co-chairman of the PP, the hardly possible coalition of GERB with the PP-DB becomes even more impossible. GERB will face the question of how it is possible to form a coalition not just with a partner investigated for a crime in his office as prime minister, but with one who personally humiliated the leader of GERB Boyko Borisov with an illegal arrest, for which he now has a chance to receive retribution. PP-DB faces the question of how to partner with a formation completely dependent on Peevski, who uses the prosecutor's office as a club for political purposes. What's more: the PP's position is finally solidified not to negotiate with GERB before they sign the declaration on the sanitary cordon around Peevski, the basis of which is Sarafov's dethronement.
The second goal is to prevent the separation of DB from PP, so desired by Borisov. The same day, the DB, without giving up its demands in the cordon declaration, announced its readiness for negotiations to form a government in which these measures would receive guarantees as part of a coalition agreement. On Petkov's request for immunity, however, DB expectedly stood firmly behind its coalition partner PP, and thus even the minimal chances of real "separation negotiations" of the GERB with the DB, which, if successful, had to be joined by the PP, decreased, and with it the probability of realizing the first mandate for the cabinet.
Be careful in the picture and everyone else
The third objective is to send a warning to the other parliamentary forces that would join legal amendments that would threaten Sarafov's election and change the status quo in the prosecution by electing a new Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). And such a majority outside GERB and "DPS-New beginning" it is already almost created - with the attempt to elect Silvi Kirilov as Speaker of the Parliament, which failed "by a hair", and with the political forces that joined the idea of the sanitary cordon. With the request for the immunity of a party leader, the Peevski-Sarafov tandem also threatens other party leaders and people's representatives - be careful what you do to them, you may be the next to be targeted.
The effect of this unforgiving move, however, will rather be boomerang. Because it is already obvious even to the biggest skeptics that the prosecution belongs to Peevski, and Sarafov fulfills his orders without question. The move is even stupid, because it not only further legitimizes the need for a radical change in the prosecutor's office, but it can also consolidate a more determined parliamentary majority to carry out the reform as a matter of urgency. And the GERB party should not only remain completely isolated, alone with Peevski, but even if we go to elections again soon, it should appear before the voters with the indelible stain of its heavy dependence on him and be doomed to isolation again in the next parliament .
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This comment expresses the personal opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and of DV as a whole.