Citizens Rally in Sofia Demanding Independent Judiciary

Petya Petrova

The protest in downtown Sofia, July 16, 2025 (BTA Photo/Nikola Uzunov)

Sofia,

16.07.2025 19:39

(BTA)

Hundreds gathered in front of the Palace of Justice in Sofia on Wednesday evening to demand an independent judiciary and accountability in the legal system. The protest, held under the slogan "Let’s Take the Truncheons of Feudal Lords," was organized by the civic initiative Justice for All.

Protesters carried banners reading: “Bulgaria is a European country, the mafia’s end is near,” “The law is not a weapon,” “Stop protecting the guilty and punishing the inconvenient,” and “#Varna for Blago.”

Deputy National Assembly Chair and Democratic Bulgaria (DB) Chair Atanas Atanassov said, “What has been happening in recent months is in effect a special political operation.” He argued that Bulgaria’s repressive apparatus had been “seized by a gang of bandits” and was now deployed against state institutions. “We must stand up to this repressive power,” Atanassov said. He noted that the offices of chief prosecutor, interior ministry chief secretary, head of the State Agency for National Security, and chair of the anti-corruption commission are all filled on an acting basis, while the Supreme Judicial Council’s mandate has expired twice and its inspectorate is starting an unconstitutional third term. “All these facts show that the state’s repressive power has been occupied and is being used with one aim: to smash and destroy the opposition. We must resist this occupation, and we will succeed when we are together and united,” he added.

Initiative Justice for All chair Velislav Velichkov told the crowd, “You know what is happening in Sofia and Varna – someone wants to seize Sofia and Varna without elections. When we say ‘someone’, the ‘some’ is redundant. We know who it is. We know why it is being done. We know who ordered it and who is carrying it out. This person has declared war not just on a few mayors and deputy mayors, the list will grow, but on an entire parliamentary group, seeking to wipe out the small real opposition to the mafia-style rule in this National Assembly by simply putting its people in jail.”

Continue the Change (CC) Chair Assen Vassilev said, “The only way to have justice is for us to be together in the square and for Europe to support us. It is easy to be brave here when we are many. It is much harder for people in small communities to be brave, and yet they stand up to the mafia because they are brave.”

Following the demonstration in front of the courthouse, the protest marched to the building of the National Assembly.

The protest is supported by members of parliament, municipal councilors from Sofia and other cities, writers, public figures, the civil association BOEC, and other civil society organizations.

/DD/