2024-03-28 01:18:02
- He should schedule the date only when he is ready to appoint the office authority
- Can the ministers and the prime minister also be candidates for deputies? Word for word of lawyers, it is not described in the constitution
- They also did not schedule how long the parliament will sit, since in case of an early vote it is no longer dissolved by decree of the president
It is less and less likely that the early parliamentary elections will be held on the Sunday before the European elections, which should be held on June 9.
This was read between the lines of President Rumen Radev’s meeting with the PP-DB, at which the resigned Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and the leaders of the coalition took and immediately returned the second mandate.
DPS, BSP and ITN have already announced that they will return the third, only “Vazrazhdane” wants to propose a cabinet. Whichever one of them chooses for the third Radev distribution, we are going to the elections. But with many unknown how.
Everything stems from the traps that the changes in the constitution set for the institution of the official cabinet. Or more precisely than
the gaps in the new texts,
part of which was intended to be supplemented by a subsequent change in other laws. What was not done.
According to most lawyers, there is no way for the head of state to issue a decree to schedule the elections before he is ready with the cabinet to organize them. This is how they read Art. 99, para. 5 of the constitution. Until now, the decree for the date of the vote was issued at the same time as the decree for the dissolution of the parliament.
The good practice is that now it should be on the same day, explained constitutionalist Prof. Borislav Tsekov.
The President will no longer dissolve the National Assembly, it remains active until the election of the next one. Here, too, there was a “hole” – the constitutional majority did not explicitly state that the deputies go on vacation for the election campaign. There is no expectation that they will continue to work and campaign from the plenary hall, but anyway it is not very clear exactly when they will stop their meetings.
The hotter issue, however, remains the search for a caretaker prime minister and ministers.
Within 10 days, Radev will again convene the parliamentary parties for consultations on the composition of the official cabinet, he announced to PP-DB on Wednesday. That means until April 5.
Before that, however, the president must have “traded” someone for prime minister. By making it clear that his search will be in the direction of a candidate without party membership. Most suitable in the list given to him by the amended constitution was the deputy ombudsman. The rest are the ombudsman himself and the heads of the BNB and the Audit Chamber, as well as the head of the National Assembly.
Unexpectedly, however, Deputy Ombudsman Elena Cherneva-Markova left her post “for personal reasons” on Wednesday.
“She was the only figure who is not directly or indirectly close to any party and the only one on the list for whom we can certainly claim no incompatibility. How come Mrs. Elena Cherneva-Markova suddenly decided to resign”, Rumen Radev addressed PP-DB at their meeting about the mandate.
He was really surprised why they didn’t raise the issue in parliament – with what motives, how suddenly on this very day, was there any pressure to withdraw. And why didn’t they initiate a hearing.
“If these are normal things for you, then don’t be surprised later that
the probability of getting a political office sharply increases,
which most likely will not be in your favor”, criticized the PP-DB president.
The ombudsman Diana Kovacheva has already been dropped from the “house book” (as Radev defined the list), as a judge is going to Strasbourg in April. So the possible fell to 8.
Former constitutional judge Rumen Nenkov sees a conflict of interest if the head of the Audit Chamber is elected as acting prime minister. Because the institution checks the spending of public funds, including by the official government. He gave an opinion on the case in the Supreme Court that in this part the changes are unconstitutional, the principles of the rule of law are violated. By the same logic, both his deputies should not be elected. I.e.
minus 3 more
and so only five names remain on the President’s list.
The head of the BNB, Dimitar Radev, sounds the most solid for a prime minister. He is not a party member, although both times he was nominated for the post by GERB. He also received great support from PP-DB and DPS when he was elected for the second term at the start of this parliament.
But if Radev chooses Radev,
the rhythm of the negotiations for our entry into the Eurozone will be disrupted – this is the main argument against it. The governor’s team does not comment.
Although he is the face of GERB, the head of the National Assembly, Rosen Zhelyazkov, also tried hard (see below).
There should have been a law on the caretaker government, which settles all the problems, explained Hristo Ivanov to bTV on Wednesday, justifying the traps. His idea was that the current cabinet should remain with official functions – i.e. to organize the elections. This is the model in the Netherlands and many European countries. The leader of the DB claims that GERB and DPS pushed for the now accepted model. And the failure of the rotation, which no one expected at the time, left this reform unfinished.
Elections to be 2 in 1 to save some 100 million,
asked at the meeting with President Kiril Petkov.
I completely understand your concerns, but it is too late for such a request. I urged not to accept thoughtless changes in the constitution regarding the service cabinet. You have undertaken them and now the questions are becoming far more than the answers. I will do everything possible, I am obliged to do it, so that the process of choosing a cabinet does not turn into a constitutional crisis.
But you have done everything possible to have the powers of the presidential institution severely limited, not only in terms of the selection, composition and control of the official cabinet, but also in determining the time parameters for the process of determining the next elections, he replied.
He assured that he understood the concerns of the PP-DB and sympathized with them, but warned that because of them the presidency “cannot control the processes as before”. And he warned that the crisis will unfold in the coming weeks and months.
There is also a different interpretation on what kind of consultation the president should call within 10 days. “During these talks, the main question should be who to appoint as interim prime minister,” explained Rumen Nenkov. He was also a member of the Public Council to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs when the changes were adopted.
However, it was written in the constitution that the president appoints an interim cabinet “after consultations with the parliamentary groups and on the proposal of the candidate for interim prime minister”. I.e. it can be assumed that before convening the consultations, he must have already settled on a prime minister.
Lawyers do not see a problem if some of the current ones
Resigned ministers retain their posts
or a deputy minister from the “Denkov” cabinet is appointed as the incumbent. There is no obstacle during the week, until the decree for the appointment of the official cabinet is issued, for the president and the prime minister to discuss the names of the ministers together.
Borisov: I can’t say anything bad about PP-DB, and let them think about him in the campaign
“The highest form of democracy is for people to determine who and how to govern after the elections. Therefore, it is good to think when there are elections, not after. I cannot twist my soul and say something bad about Hristo Ivanov, about Atanasov, about Petkov, about Vassilev, with whom we have defended the same causes and ministers and policies for 9 months. And we’ve all said we’ve done good things.” These words of Boyko Borisov were interpreted as a hint to the leaders of PP-DB to keep a good tone during the campaign, because it is not known whether after the elections they will not have to sit at the same table again. The leader of GERB made his comment in response to Kiril Petkov, who announced on TV that “Borisov is an average strategist, he is not incredible”.
In one case they say: “Boyko, help us”, in the other: “He is to blame for everything”, commented the leader of GERB. And he again recounted the chronology of the negotiations and the compromises made by his party, and his conclusion was that GERB was not responsible for their failure.
If Rosen Zhelyazkov becomes acting prime minister, there is no way he will be the chairman of the 50th parliament
If Rosen Zhelyazkov becomes acting prime minister, he will not be able to be the chairman of the 50th parliament.
The official cabinet works until the election of a new regular one by the next National Assembly. In order for it to be constituted and proceed with the procedure, however, there must first be an elected chairman. Who can’t possibly be an acting prime minister at the moment.
The question of what is (in)compatible with the post of chairman of the National Assembly became relevant because of the option of Zhelyazkov being acting prime minister. His position is among the few on the list from which the president chooses.
And can the chairman be both an official prime minister and a candidate-deputy in the early elections?
According to MPs from the PP-DB, there is no problem with Zhelyazkov being both prime minister and a candidate for deputy, as has happened with current ministers so far. However, they go on leave for the month of the pre-election campaign, while this cannot happen with an acting prime minister – there is no one to replace him and he is elected with a specific mandate, argue lawyers from other groups. Everything that is not forbidden is permitted, others say.
There really is no formal ban, but this contradicts both the 32-year-old practice and the idea of an official cabinet, which is broadcast for 2 months with a specific purpose – organization of the elections, a parliamentary lawyer was categorical.
If Zhelyazkov becomes acting prime minister, there is no need to seek a new parliamentary majority to elect the chairman of the 49th National Assembly. As is known, the assembly is no longer dissolved by the president with the determination of the date for elections, but remains active. And in the rules it is written that in the absence of the chairman, when he has not indicated who should sit in his chair, the deputy chairman, nominated by the largest group, becomes the boss.
But this too, it turns out, is subject to interpretation. “If the president appoints Rosen Zhelyazkov as acting prime minister, the parliament must conduct a new procedure for electing the president. And while it continues, one of the deputies or one after the other in succession will lead the meetings”, claims the professor of constitutional law Pencho Penev. He is a former Minister of Justice, a former constitutional judge and one of the authors of the Basic Law, as well as a member of the Public Council of the Constitutional Commission in this National Assembly.