Bulgaria’s public space has been shaking for a second month in a row due to a meeting of its Prosecutor General with a notorious gas businessman, held with the intermediation of another businessman. The arguments on the case have recently stepped out of its frames and penetrated the deep waters of separation of powers. The Constitution presumes strict separation of the functions of the legislative, executive and judicial powers, but it appears that there isn’t anything of that kind right now, if we judge by the escalating tension between them and inside each one of them.

Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov called on before journalists through the weekend for a clear regulation on the type of people that he was allowed to meet with and also on the circumstances necessary – and he spoke not only of himself, but also of all representatives of the executive and legislative powers. He also defended the stance that the chairs of the supreme administrative and cassation courts should be subjects of some sort of a mechanism of control. At the same time Tsatsarov’s opinion is that such mechanism doesn’t need changes of the constitution, as demanded by the Chair of the Supreme Court of Cassation Lozan Panov, but only amendments to the Judicial Power Act and the Criminal Code.

Such statements in fact argue the competence of some actions of the cassation court’s chair – and this is the institution in charge of the legislation’s compliance with the Constitution. President Rumen Radev also argued the admissibility of Lozan Panov’s actions a few days ago by refusing to form a special committee on the admissibility of the meeting mentioned above. Commenting the behavior of the Chair of the Supreme Court of Cassation the Head of Htate said that the presidential institution should not become hostage to interpersonal intrigues, calling on its representatives to refrain from political comments, or to leave and become politicians.

PM Boyko Borissov also appeared to be reluctant to pay attention to Mr. Panov’s requests. He agreed to listen to him during an exclusive meeting, but in the presence of the Vice premier in charge of the judicial reform – Ekaterina Zaharieva and also of Minister of Justice Tsetska Tsacheva. The latter disagreed with the assessment of Panov that the changes in the system of justice so far had been mimicry, while Zaharieva called him on to be more specific.

Some statements of the Chair of the Supreme Court of Cassation prompt that his discontent won’t end up here and despite his failures so far he will also get the parliamentary represented forces involved into the issue. The latter move must be far too complicated for the average Bulgarian who is unlikely to comprehend the depth of the scandalous situation. At the same time the level of the debate and its longevity makes people really curious. They should probably be annoyed at the same time that over 25 years after the start of democratic changes in Bulgaria, this country still faces problems with the separation of powers.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev