The Bulgarian Deputy Director of the Venice Commission, Filip Dimitrov, defends the Bulgarian government

© Facebook / Boyko Borisov

Constitutional judge Filip Dimitrov gave a historic interview to the electronic media transitionstories.eu, in which he defended the ruling party and harshly criticized the protesters with arguments like those of the authorities. (Video at the end of the text).

The former prime minister’s messages to the UDF government in 1991/1992 are important because he has been vice president of the Venice Commission since last December, as the European Commission for Democracy through Law is known in the Council of Europe. It remained one of the few amendments to government legislation, although traditionally they did not comply with its recommendations.

And their views have been the same for years: the systemic problem of ineffective criminal investigations in Bulgaria and the related lack of guarantees for the independence of a possible criminal investigation against the Prosecutor General, that is, this is found to be completely impossible. It is required to introduce judicial control over the refusal of the Prosecutor’s Office to initiate a criminal process, not to allow the automatic removal of judges at the request of the Attorney General, to suspend the possibility that the Attorney General subordinates the Supreme Council of the Judiciary.

As vice president, Dimitrov did not say a word about the lack of implementation of the recommendations of the Venice Commission.

It has 62 member states, each of which appoints an expert for a period of 4 years. They must work as independent professionals, not as representatives of their countries. In this context, it is surprising that the Bulgarian vice president of the Venice Commission sees a “fierce negative campaign” against Bulgaria, which is being waged not only at home but also abroad, “by external forces from the EU and NATO. “. By this euphemism he usually refers to Russia.

And although the protesters do not defend Russia, on the contrary, they want to dismantle the Russian model in the Bulgarian government and in the leadership of the prosecutor’s office, Dimitrov suspects that they serve foreign interests: “It almost turns out that the rule of law does not apply. This is something that, in my opinion, is more related to the interests of external forces towards the EU and NATO than to things in Bulgaria itself. Bulgaria, which is trying to play a stabilizing role in the Balkans is a thorn in the side of those who want to see the Balkans shaken. “

Both oligarchs and outsiders

The constitutional judge overlooks the fact that the rule of law does not apply when it comes to investigating possible crimes of people at the highest level of government. From his words, it is not obvious that he sees the strong dependence of the judicial branch on the executive. And in the spirit of Prime Minister Borissov and Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev, he announced that the court could be influenced not by the ruling party but by the oligarchs.

“There are also criticisms of the application of the law. On the other hand, the claim that this implies some control by the executive seems quite dubious.

Who can influence the judiciary?

– Factors that are unfortunately irresponsible. These are factors that are not related to the executive branch.

The oligarchs?

– Yes. “

It is clear from his answers that he considers the oligarchs to be people who are not connected with the government, which is Borisov and Geshev’s main defense thesis. In fact, since ancient Greece, the oligarchy has been a form of government in which power is concentrated in the hands of a small group, as is the case in Bulgaria, Russia and other authoritarian countries. Oligarchs outside the power is a wooden iron, an oxymoron.

For freedom of expression: “all the press spits on the government”

Filip Dimitrov repeats some of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s service statements on freedom of expression:

“What better than to say that there was no free press in the country? All the press spits on the government – in whose name is this other matter. We can say that it is subject to certain oligarchic interests, we can say that We can say that the level of competition of the Bulgarian media is less, but to say that it is not free, but that the executive can impose something on it – that’s funny. However, this topic is constantly broadened. “

Dimitrov overlooks the fact that the international organization Reporters Without Borders places Bulgaria last in the EU and 111th in the world (out of 180 countries) in terms of freedom of expression due to increasing political pressure on the few media that are outside the portfolio of the parliamentarian. MRF Delyan Peevski and businessmen close to the government.

In its latest report, published in April, the Council of Europe also found that Bulgaria has opaque properties and a media market “held captive by oligarchs who use their media power to exert political influence and attack and humiliate rivals and critics.” . Most of the newspaper distribution network is said to be controlled by “a conglomerate owned by a politician”, and independent journalists and the media are often intimidated in person and online.

As for Dimitrov’s qualifications that independent media criticism of the government is “spit”, this again shows a distorted view of what journalism is and a lack of understanding of its role in exposing the government’s non-transparent actions. to prevent abuse.

These protests are not like those protests

The former prime minister has harshly criticized attempts to compare the current situation with the major protests of the early 1990s and praised the country’s progress over the past 10 years.

“When we started to change the communist system, Bulgaria was at the bottom, people were congested both economically and socially, in terms of travel, exchange and, if you will, communication with the world. The economic situation in the country has never been so good, as it is now (maybe only after 1938, when there was a war-related boom coming). There can be a lot of problems, there may be people who can barely make ends meet, even then. The level of Bulgarian citizens and the economy as a whole has never been as good as it is now. To claim that the last 10 years have been lost is not just a lie, it is an insult. Bulgaria is developing, it could probably develop and better. “Dimitrov said.

Again, the issue of the oligarchic model and the taking of public resources by a small circle around the government is lost, which condemns public finances to chronic scarcity and the State to poverty and hopelessness.

The protesters are not prepared

In his lengthy interview, Dimitrov also concluded that the protesters do not know what they want in the future and have mixed and unrealistic demands.

“It would be nice if the people we see in the protests, instead of repeating 3-4 mantras, had a broader understanding of things. I heard some people speak (there were young people among them)” now we will eliminate them and after them they will come good and honest people and politicians. “I don’t know if we will import them from abroad, from some neighboring galaxy? I didn’t see them pointing at me. When a person says such a thing, they must have someone in mind. The idea that now we are going to remove this and the rest will fall from the sky, Even for young people it is not recommended, those who want to change the country and do it better may have to make an effort not only to be in the square, which is easy and in preparation for what they can offer.

Because the thesis that in Bulgaria people who have something to say will not be listened to is not true. It is not true that people who have knowledge and skills cannot apply them. In a sense, there is a hunger for knowledge and skills in Bulgaria. And it’s not true that everyone is in a hurry to ignore readers just to put the shoddy aside – these are urban myths. I have the vanity to believe that in those years people who showed great qualities triumphed. Very often, those who have failed attribute their failure to the state, the system, bad people, etc. My advice to young people is, above all, to prepare things and be able to assume the responsibilities that await them, and whether or not they will be in the square is a matter of understanding, political thinking and who they like ”.

In fact, this is the strongest support from the government, with which it manages to shake even the protesters: Who will we replace GERB with? Many people got caught up in this line, including former UDF supporters.

In fact, the protest has a clear demand: the resignation of the Boyko Borissov government and related chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev. Who will come after GERB is a matter of democratic elections, in which voters will give representation to whoever they judge, and those elected will have the task of organizing for the future government. The most important message of the protest is that a model of government like the current one should no longer be tolerated, and this should be clear to all subsequent rulers.

The deputies are not subordinate to the voters

The deeply cruel attitude of the Bulgarians, who claim that the deputies “went to work” in parliament, which is outrageous. They are representatives of the nation and they do not go to work in parliament to earn a living there, but they do many things, among them it is not their job to heat the seats, but to prepare the materials. When they have something to say, be in the room and when there is a vote, be back in the room. The claim that his people were “bosses” “It is not true. He is a contracting authority, they are his representatives. To reduce to this Leninist way of thinking that the state is like a factory that we have to run, is very harmful.”Filip Dimitrov said in his interview.

“It is not about looking at the representatives of the nation as enemies, traitors and obscurantist figures that prevent the people from living. My advice to those heroes who wanted this for so long and became the reason for this draft of a new constitution” . So the question is to think about how to reduce the destructive speech about their representatives and go to the polls. Not after the elections to declare they were fair only when he gets rid of them. the chosen one is someone with whom they agree, but other elections have always had flaws, how does that work? “

In defense of the lower parliament in terms of culture, knowledge and quality of its legislative activity, Dimitrov overlooks the fact that deputies are accountable to their constituents and are obliged to defend their interests in the National Assembly, as well as to exercise control over them on your behalf. other authorities.

Instead, we are witnessing an open service and an absurd humiliation of the institution of the deputies to a subsidiary body of the government and the prosecution. People’s deputies do not exercise effective control over ministers, and the election of members of the judiciary takes place for years in a completely non-transparent manner and in the service of behind-the-scenes purposes.

The Venice Commission will rule on the draft constitution of GERB,

is clear from Dimitrov’s interview. “As far as I know, a letter has been sent to the Venice Commission with the so-called emergency procedure and there will probably be a response.”he says.

It remains to be seen whether this time, too, the cabinet will ignore the recommendation.