Bulgaria's GERB pushes to oust Parvanov

11/03/2010

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov is facing possible impeachment for disclosing the contents of a recent conversation with Finance Minister Simeon Djankov.

(Euobserver, Sofia News Agency, 24 Chasa, Standart, Nine O'clock - 11/03/10; AP, DPA, Sofia News agency, The Sofia Echo, Dnevnik.bg, Mediapool, Hurriyet - 10/03/10)

The ruling GERB party wants to impeach President Georgi Parvanov. [Getty Images]

Bulgaria's ruling centre-right GERB party said on Wednesday (March 10th) that it will initiate steps to impeach leftist President Georgi Parvanov for publishing the transcript of a closed-door meeting with Finance Minister Simeon Djankov.

Djankov, who went to the president's office on March 5th to clarify controversial remarks he made about Parvanov on a TV talk show five days earlier, was not informed that the contents of the conversation would be made public, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's party said.

Moreover, the finance minister was not even aware that the discussion was being recorded.

By doing this, Parvanov violated Article 32, paragraph 2 of the Bulgarian Constitution, GERB's executive board said in a statement issued late Tuesday.

"No one shall be followed, photographed, filmed, recorded or subjected to any other similar activity without his knowledge or despite his express disapproval, except when such actions are permitted by law," the article reads.

Parvanov's move was not only an "unprecedented" act of disrespect for Djankov's legal rights, but it also sent an extremely negative signal to the public, that their constitutionally-guaranteed rights can be violated, even by the head of state.

"This precedent is a sign of an unacceptable political morality, and requires a clear policy response," the GERB executive board said in Tuesday's statement, asking its parliamentary group to table a motion requesting impeachment procedures against Parvanov.

As a first step, the motion needs the support of at least 161 members of Bulgaria's 240-seat unicameral parliament, so that it can then be referred to the country's Constitutional Court. Aside from GERB's 117 deputies, another 35 lawmakers representing the nationalist Ataka party and the right-wing Blue Coalition are expected to support the move.

The 40 representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which was led by Parvanov until January 2002 when he began his first mandate as head of state, and the 37 lawmakers from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), are expected to reject the motion.

The conservative Order, Law and Justice (OLJ) party, whose parliamentary group fell apart last year after several of its lawmakers left the party, indicated recently that it would not support GERB's bid to remove the president, saying there is no legal argument for such a move.

But according to a Sofia News Agency report on Thursday, the OLJ lawmakers now appear to back the motion.

"This is not an act directed against the head of state but instead is a political mechanism for discussion on key constitutional issues in the relationship between institutions," party leader Yane Yanev was quoted as saying.

Even if the motion gets the required parliamentary support, it is expected to stumble at the 12-member Constitutional Court. A third of those members were appointed by Parvanov, analysts say. If the motion succeeds and the president is impeached, then Vice-President Angel Marin will take over Parvanov's duties and will complete his five-year mandate, ending in early 2012.