Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Minister of Justice Andrey Yankulov rejected the allegations of legal chaos surrounding the case with the appointment of Andrey Gyurov as Acting Prime Minister and stated that speculation is spreading in the public space.
In the studio of “The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov” he also commented on the state of the judicial system and the case with the acting prosecutor general.
The information spread in recent days related to the opinion of the Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Andrey Yankulov commented as follows:
“There have been some speculations that almost the Advocate General has ruled on the legality of the temporary removal of Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov from the post of Deputy Governor of the BNB, which is simply not true. There is no such ruling by the Advocate General.”
According to him, this is where additional interpretations of the government’s illegitimacy launched:
“From here on, additional interpretations and speculations launched, how this almost led to the illegitimacy of Mr. Gyurov’s appointment. And from here on, of his actions, of the government’s actions. Almost a distortion of the electoral process, which is also very, very far from reality. Let’s not state a complete lie.”
The minister emphasized that at the time of Gyurov’s appointment, there was no legal dispute:
“Becaapply at the time when the president appointed Andrey Gyurov as Prime Minister by decree, he was Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank. There is no dispute about this. As of this date, there is no ruling at all by the Court of Justice of the European Union. There is no ruling from the Bulgarian court.
He also recalled the position of the parliament on the case:
“When Mr. Gyurov submitted his resignation, in parallel with his appointment as acting Prime Minister, then the parliament accepted that his powers as Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank were not terminated by law with his appointment as acting Prime Minister.”
When questioned whether there was a risk of appealing decisions of the Council of Ministers, Yankulov was categorical:
“The legal chaos is only in the minds of those who are testing to apply this topic for elementary political propaganda, pre-election.”
Andrei Yankulov also criticized the leadership of the prosecutor’s office:
“Since at the top of the prosecutor’s office itself, one of the most important bodies of criminal justice, and of the system of state governance in general, since at the top of the prosecutor’s office we have an illegitimate prosecutor general – how can it be any different?”
The minister also commented on the situation surrounding the acting prosecutor general:
“The real problem is that the prosecutorial college of the Supreme Judicial Council, in practice a few weeks ago, when considering my proposal to appoint a different acting prosecutor general from Mr. Sarafov, in practice declared that he is in office forever, unless he himself wishes to resign.”
According to him, this contradicts the principles of the rule of law. He also commented on the topic of judicial reform and the required majority:
“The concept that has been established is to have an understanding between the political forces for the nomination of members of the Supreme Judicial Council who are not party nominations.”
Regarding the release of the director of the Sofia prison, Yankulov stated:
“The head of the Sofia prison has decided that he probably wants to take some moral responsibility for what happened in connection with the story of the requested early release of Mr. Banev and has submitted his resignation, which I have accordingly accepted.”
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