The latest 17^th report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism on Bulgaria’s progress in the spheres of justice and home affairs caused yesterday reactions across the country, testifying on diametrical discrepancies between the political forces. The ruling GERB party and its United Patriots coalitional partner say that the report is objective and positive after all, as it contains no new recommendations, registering certain level of implementation on the old ones at the same time. The ones in charge here feel especially contented by the fact that for the first time the EC assumes that the monitoring might be ceased in 2018. However, the socialists and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms speak about a “failure” and an “objective failure” in these spheres. According to the socialists, the reporting of partial implementation of the recommendations means after all that none of them is fulfilled at this stage.

The United Patriots coalition added its nuance to the reactions, appealing for either the dropping of the justice and home affair monitoring of the EC over Bulgaria and Romania, or for the adding of such mechanism for other European countries with even heavier violations observed, according to the patriots.

The fact that the monitoring continues even after yet another EC report obviously doesn’t serve as motivation for the parliamentary forces to unify their efforts for the elimination of the reasons for the report. On the day of the report’s proclamation the parliament saw a scandal due to a demand of the socialists, saying that PM Borissov should explain his statement that there are MPs involved in drug trafficking and vote purchase. Chair of Parliament Dimitar Glavchev expelled from the parliament hall BSP leader Kornelia Ninova and in their turn the socialists began gathering signatures for his dismissal. The socialists then left with demonstration the parliamentary sitting, soon followed by the MRF.

The controversial assessment of rulers and opposition of the monitoring report form a layer on tensions around the GERB initiative for constitutional changes, aimed at the removal of term limitation for crimes at the 1992 – 2017 privatization deals. GERB admits that the initiative is related to the motion of no confidence prepared by the BSP for corruption within the cabinet. However, being determined by GERB as a “major privatizer”, Kornelia Ninova responded by insisting on investigation of the concessions and criminal networks of the transition period, meaningfully calling on for the stepping out of power of former mugs… Thus as a paradox the EC report on the country’s controversial progress in the spheres of justice and home affairs was faced with yet another portion of the arguments between the first and second political forces on who’s more corrupted. The argument is also senseless if one takes into consideration the fact that both GERB and BSP bear responsibility for the period of the monitoring reports, as they took turns in governing.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev