Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

President Radev takes the election of constitutional judges to court

Rumen Radev
Photo: BTA

President Rumen Radev has formally filed a request with the Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional the decisions of the National Assembly on the appointment of constitutional judges. In his statement, the President underscores that the Constitution mandates Parliament to uphold principles of openness, transparency, publicity, and reasonableness in the selection of body members to ensure their independence. According to the head of state, these principles have been violated, which jeopardises the authority of the Constitutional Court, the presidential press centre reported. 


At issue is the election last week of two constitutional judges: Desislava Atanasova, a long-time leader of the GERB-SDS parliamentary group who has participated in the adoption of hundreds of laws, from the parliamentary quota, and former Supreme Court of Cassation judge Borislav Belazelkov, nominated by the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB).
Meanwhile, fourteen bar associations in the country have also called on Parliament to overturn the decision to elect Atanasova and Belazelkov, reports Free Europe. According to the bar associations, the law was only formally observed in the election, as the two nominations were submitted at the last minute without public discussion. They point out that Atanasova has no experience as a judge, having worked briefly as a legal adviser in a psychiatric hospital.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Raya Nazryan

National Assembly Speaker to convene extraordinary parliamentary session if one fifth of the MPs request it

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Raya Nazaryan, would convene an extraordinary session if one-fifth of the MPs proposed specific topics and points of discussion. In Kyustendil, where she is a guest of the Fertility..

published on 9/28/24 3:24 PM

Statistics show Bulgarians live in good health longer than the average level in Europe

Bulgarians live in good health longer than most citizens of the European Union, according to Eurostat data. This country is more than 4 years ahead of the average levels in the EU at the backdrop of having the lowest life expectancy..

published on 9/28/24 3:05 PM
Lyudmila Petkova

Bulgaria risks losing 1 billion euros under the Recovery and Resilience Plan

This country may lose over a billion euros of European funding due to unadopted changes to the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the new chapter to it and the updated road map for climate neutrality, which were not accepted by the..

published on 9/28/24 12:53 PM