Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
"The assembly" created the mega-organ against corruption, which turned out to be a mega-club in the hands of a politician sanctioned for corruption. A year and a half after the appearance of the Commission for Combating Corruption (CPC), "Democratic Bulgaria" (DB) loudly demanded its closure, after in 2023 it failed to convince its coalition partner "Continuing Change" (PP) not to empower it excessively.
According to MP Ivaylo Mirchev, the DB did not approve of the CPC's investigative powers and warned about the risks. Today there is no need for warning, because the results are before everyone's eyes - the commission acts as an instrument for repression against opponents of the government. This vice of the Bulgarian institutions is not from yesterday. Not from the dawn of democratic changes, but from the times of the totalitarian state, they have developed the reflex not to bother the powerful of the day.
Even if there are some grounds for the criminal prosecutions against the deputy mayor of Sofia Nikola Barbutov, the mayor of Varna Blagomir Kotsev, municipal councilors, the fact that they are all connected to one political force - the PP, already shows targeting.
But does it mean that the institutions should be closed because the politicians want a service subscription for their private and party interests?
"The fight against corruption" is on a deaf ear
According to the Bulgarian National Radio, the co-chairman of the State Security Service, Gen. Atanas Atanasov announced that the commission should be closed, "because we have a whole cascade of bodies that should deal with the fight against corruption - there is the Economic Police, there is the Criminal Police, the State Anti-Corruption Agency", and defined it as a "mistake" by the PP. As a former head of counterintelligence, he is certainly aware of what the public sees - that these bodies also act like the CCP: they do not systematically pursue corruption, but wait for targets with corrupt individuals to be pointed out to them.
When in power, parties are tempted to create their own cadres, hidden behind inspiring causes. With enthusiasm, GERB created the special justice system in 2010 - in its first governing term, when Boyko Borisov won power with promises to crack down on corruption, and Extra Nina sang about "Bate Boyko": "With you in a triple coalition we jump without rehearsal!" No one, except Google, remembers GERB's first economic program, which promised 10% economic growth and a 30% redistributive role for the state, but it is not forgotten how it promised to clean up the state and filled the hearts of Bulgarians with hope and happiness. The opposition, on the other hand, accused GERB's Number Two - Tsvetan Tsvetanov, of creating "his own court" with selected magistrates.
Ultimately, the special justice system was closed with the efforts of several caretaker and regular governments - and despite the resistance of GERB and the MRF. It never achieved convictions at the "highest levels" and degenerated into an instrument for dealing with political and business opponents. The acting Minister of Justice, who first requested its closure - Yanaki Stoilov, had noted the tendency of the special justice system to qualify any crime committed in complicity as the activity of an organized criminal group.
Why not reform instead of closure
A proposal to close the CPC without an alternative, without a clear plan for a new anti-corruption body, would not have a positive impact on the PP-DB. In line with their fight against corruption, part of their political brand is to propose changes that would make the structure more effective. Otherwise, they show inconsistency in their political actions. Since the CPC has become Peevski's tool, along with the opposition rhetoric from the PP-DB, they can prepare proposals for changes to the Law on Combating Corruption. For example, to consider greater accountability of the CPC than an annual report, as well as stricter control.
The DB insists that its functions be reduced only to checking property and conflict of interest and that the possibility of investigation be eliminated. But the declarations of property and interests that public officials are obliged to submit and are on the CPC website are not an object of interest. Instead of serving as a tool for preventing corruption, these declarations are filled out pro forma, without real verification, without analysis of discrepancies, and therefore without consequences.
Have the NRA and SANS checked the income and property declared by any politician, magistrate and/or senior civil servant, including the presence of offshore accounts and the origin of the funds in them? Given the lack of information, there are two hypotheses - everything is fine with them or the data was provided to whoever requested it. This is how the state produces impunity: the institutions exist, but they refuse to act, leaving corruption uninvestigated and the authorities untroubled.
"Paternity" of the Anti-Corruption
The political opponents of the PP-DB do not fail to remind them of the "paternity" of the "Anti-Corruption" commission - that they created it, that they wanted Boyko Rashkov to head it, that they included it in the Recovery and Sustainability Plan (RSP). The procedure for selecting a new composition of the anti-corruption commission, which has already begun, was the last condition for the second tranche of the RSP. The payment was frozen after the three political forces behind the "Denkov" cabinet in early 2024 - PP-DB, GERB-SDF and MRF (read Peevski), did not agree on how they will distribute the "three-member".
The absurd situation is that the most powerful repressive body in the state ("quasi-prosecutor's office") is run by a person who was not elected as its chairman - Anton Slavchev, "temporary" boss since March 2022. Moreover, he is the head of two commissions, into which the former CPKONPI was divided - the anti-corruption commission and the confiscation commission, as well as the remaining two members - Antoaneta Tsonkova and Plamen Yotsov.
The opposition suspects that Slavchev is also a favorite for a permanent seat in the CPK. The nomination committee is yet to select the candidates. The closure of the CPC is unlikely to happen, as it is not among the conditions renegotiated by the cabinet of Rosen Zhelyazkov (GERB) under the PPA, moreover - the EC expects Bulgaria to fulfill its commitments.
The current paradox is publicly known - "Anti-Corruption" does not catch corruption, it serves it.