Comment by Alexander Detev:
The manner in which the mayor of Varna was detained has set another severe diagnosis for the justice system in Bulgaria. Moreover, the arrest of an opposition politician occurred at a time when the European Commission once again noted a lack of progress in terms of guaranteeing the rule of law in Bulgaria in its annual report.
"The detention of Varna mayor Kotsev is a brutal legal act", wrote former prosecutor Andrey Yankulov. "It is now becoming less and less likely that somewhere along the chain "police/other agency - > prosecutor's office - > court" "someone can at least stop the major outrages not by doing some heroic deed, but by simply applying the law," added Yankulov, who is now part of the Anti-Corruption Fund.
"Since it is obvious that the institutions called upon to protect judicial independence are insulting it, then it is the duty of independent magistrates to defend the legal order and the state," urged judge Vladislava Tsarigradska. "In situations in which democracy, the separation of powers or the rule of law are threatened, judges must not give in and have the obligation to speak out openly in defense of the independence of the judicial system, the constitutional order and the restoration of democracy."
Why do Yankulov and Tsarigradska remain voices in the wilderness?
Appeals like those of Yankulov and Tsarigradska are rare, but not exceptional. Why, however, do the voices of these two magistrates - one former and one current - who have proven themselves to be principled and unyielding lawyers defending independent justice remain voices in the wilderness?
Yankulov speaks openly and in detail about the deep problems in the Bulgarian justice system, but no longer as part of it. Tsarigradska has been sounding the alarm for years about vicious practices and undue influence over magistrates, but her warnings were uninteresting to the general public until one of the dealers in this influence - Martin Bozanov-Notary - was publicly executed. Several months of interest in the topic followed, after which it was marginalized again and remained in focus in several independent media channels (most of them only online) and among a narrow circle of citizens and specialists in large cities.
The political project "Yes, Bulgaria" under the leadership of Hristo Ivanov promised to direct the spotlight precisely on the problems of justice, which, according to Ivanov, are at the root of most of the major political, economic and social deficits in Bulgarian society. And so, until the so-called judicial reform crashed - including in the Constitutional Court, and Hristo Ivanov stepped down from the political scene.
Why don't Bulgarians realize something so important?
Why is there a lack of public understanding of the dangers that the control and instrumentalization of justice by political and economic circles lead to? How is it that the majority of Bulgarian society does not realize that without an independent court, police and prosecutor's office, the slide towards authoritarianism is guaranteed, and corruption will continue to dominate public relations and drain the pockets of every Bulgarian citizen?
There are several explanations. The most basic one is probably related to trust. According to data from "Alpha Research" at the end of last year, positive assessments of the work of the court in Bulgaria were only 13%, of the police - 22%, and of the Prosecutor General almost fell into the statistical error - only 5% positively assessed the work of Borislav Sarafov. For comparison: in Germany by the end of 2024, nearly 80% of citizens said they had confidence in the police, and nearly 70 percent - in the justice system.
This difference in the attitude of citizens towards institutions is striking. Bulgarians clearly do not accept the institutions in the country as structures working in their favor. On the contrary. The court, the prosecutor's office and the police are more of an enemy - an instrument of repression and harassment. Exactly as they were before 1989. Therefore, the attitude towards them, including their problems, can be more or less described as follows: the further away, the better. That's probably why people remain deaf to the problems in the justice system and the calls of individual politicians, experts and magistrates for large-scale civil protests and a reaction to the outrages in law enforcement agencies.
It could get even more apocalyptic
However, the solution will not come by itself, nor will it be a natural result of the change of generations. The fish stinks from the head. Yes, in the regional police departments there are certainly police officers who serve as an example and who can restore the trust of citizens that these structures can finally work for the benefit of citizens and the law. The same goes for the hundreds of valiant magistrates who are trying to do their job and somehow maneuver between the Cosa Nostrata, which stabs and hangs in justice through its thugs with ridiculous nicknames - Euro, Notary, etc. But when these valiant law enforcement officers go to do their job and break up a smuggling channel, for example, their bosses call and say: "Colleagues, go home". And they go home because they have no other choice. They go back to the cemetery of morality, where the bosses in question are waiting for them. And there they are greeted with the words that every cemetery greets them with: "I am what you will be, and you are what I was".
It has become very apocalyptic, hasn't it? And it will become more and more apocalyptic until we hear what Andrey Yankulov and Judge Tsarigradska tell us. And until we realize that this battle is ours - each and every one of us. So that tomorrow we won't be the ones in the fetters.