These days the chants of protesters have been heard across the streets of Sofia. This time protesters were not as many as two years ago, when thousands of people gathered every night downtown to protest against oligarchic relationships in Bulgaria. Two years later people are talking once again about oligarchic interests in the judiciary. As it turned out after what politicians called a historic compromise on Thursday, the biggest stumbling blocks remain intact.

The price of the compromise is high. Not coincidentally co-chairman of the Reform Bloc (RB) Radan Kanev started talking about early elections if no agreement was reached. Journalists like to say that the telegraph pole is a well-edited pine tree. This is actually what has happened with the eagerly promoted judicial reform in Bulgaria. The original form was replaced with something much different. The most important change that envisaged eliminating secret voting in the Supreme Judicial Council became a victim of the compromise. The secret vote will be kept and doubts about someone controlling the magistrates.

The major idea of a reform is to change the current model of management of the judicial system, in order to cut existing dependencies. Planned reforms hit the right spot, judging by the ardent opposition against them. That is why disappointment after editing the reforms is big. Now the constitutional changes will hardly reduce the number of people who do not believe in the court’s independence. These are actually more than 90% of Bulgarians.

Actually, the biggest stumbling block is of an entirely different nature. The judiciary in Bulgaria has been in the grip of elite that formed in the first years after 1989. They are satisfied with the status quo and would not allow anything to change it. This is not surprising - the judiciary is the most rudimentary part of social life in post-communist Bulgaria. The democratization of this system is the slowest, because it was not functional for 45 years. For decades the outcomes of lawsuits were decided by the Party. 25 years have passed since November 10, 1989 but it seems this is insufficient time in order for the judiciary to find out that it must be independent from those who are economically and politically powerful. This is what Brussels expects from the government in Sofia.

English version: A. Markov