Bulgaria Parliament Majority: President Violated Constitution

Domestic | March 26, 2010, Friday // 13:05|  views

Bulgaria's National Assembly has sufficient support to continue the process of impeachment of President Georgi Parvanov. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's parliamentarians have tabled a draft decision to proceed with the impeachment of the President, Georgi Parvanov.

A total of 162 MPs declared they were in favor of the motion tabled by the ruling GERB party. Support for the move came from the far right Ataka party, the Blue Coalition and from independent MPs from the former RZS group.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and ethnic Turkish DPS party did not support the motion. However, signatures in favor exceeded the required 160, ensuring the passing of the draft, which will next be submitted to the Bulgarian Constitutional Court.

This latest move comes on the heels of Parvanov's March 5 press conference devoted to criticism of the cabinet's anti-crisis efforts, together with the scandal surrounding his publishing of the transcript of a conversation with Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, without the latter's knowledge.

The parliamentary draft claims that "the boundaries of legitimate presidential statements are enshrined in the Constitution" and that "with his heavily loaded political statements and actions during the scandal with the Finance Minister", Parvanov had violated the basic constitutional norms and principles of the political system, such as popular sovereignty, separation of powers and political pluralism.

Parliamentarians stated that they were forced to initiate the procedure for impeachment of the President, in order to allow the Constitutional Court to solve this inter-institutional dispute authoritatively and conclusively.

The MPs further state that in a Parliamentary Republic, the President, though directly elected, has a "limited democratic 'mandate' and restricted powers".

In the constitutional scheme of separation of powers, Parliament, as the sovereign body, has empowered the President to exercise a limited number of functions, to express positions and put forward political views as well as whether or not to support certain political forces, the lawmakers reason, with reference to the interpretative decision of the Constitutional Court that dates back to 1995.

They have concluded that the Bulgarian head of state is not equal in status to the mandate of the parliamentary majority, and he should thus not compete with the parliament and cabinet, as it permitted in a semi-presidential or presidential regime.

It was precisely this basic principle, they claim, that was violated by President Georgi Parvanov, in his declaration that his political legitimacy is comparable to that of the National Assembly.

Parvanov had supported this thesis in his last press conference on March 12: "My place here is decided by 2 million voters, moreover, perhaps much more than all this majority together".

"From this misunderstood position of his, the president is rejecting the entire policy of the Government and - what is more important in this case - he states that will become his systematic opposition", the draft declaration reads.

According to the proposal, Parvanov clearly understood that, in attacking the two Deputy Prime Ministers Simeon Djankov and Tsvetan Tsvetanov, he was also attacking the entire government.

Such "verbal acts" by the President violate the parliamentary principles of the Constitution and then subject it to "a semi-presidential interpretation". In their view, this is a serious violation and threat of the basic law which must be stopped in its infancy.

The draft claims that the President has violated, not only the spirit, but the specific provisions of the Constitution - art. 1, para 1, art. 92. para1, Art. 62 para. 1 and Art. 105, para. 1.

Moreover, according to them, the manner of conducting the conversation with Djankov followed by publication of the transcript of their meeting, had compromised the dignity of the minister, which is essentially a violation of Art. 32 para. 2 of the Constitution.

The MPs concluded that if the President has some criticism of the government's policy and of the National Assembly, it should be expressed in accordance with Art. 98, section 2 of the Constitution in relation to his powers under Art. 102, para. 1 to address parliament.

It was legally unacceptable for the President to use a personal meeting to clarify the misunderstanding regarding participation in the television show and to pass on political messages, the statement read.

The next procedure in the move to impeach the President is a full parliamentary vote when, once again, a minimum of 160 MPs in favor will be required.

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Tags: President Georgi Parvanov, GERB, Ataka, RZS, Blue Coalition, DPS, impeachment, Constitutional Court

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