site.btaUPDATED President Says Constitutional Court Ruling against Parliament Chair's Rejection of His Referendum Proposal Is "Victory of Law over Arbitrariness"

When the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that the National Assembly Chair has no competence to determine the admissibility of a national referendum, it was "a victory of law over an arbitrary act of the political class," President Rumen Radev told journalists on Wednesday.

According to Radev, the Constitutional Court ruling is retroactive.

In May, President Radev proposed to the National Assembly to resolve on holding a national referendum in which Bulgarians would be asked whether they agree to the introduction of the euro in Bulgaria in 2026. National Assembly Chair Nataliya Kiselova rejected the President's proposal, arguing that it is inadmissible because it is inconsistent with national and EU law. At the end of May, President Radev referred the matter to the Constitutional Court.

On Tuesday, the Court ruled that the National Assembly Chair does not have the competence to determine the admissibility of a national referendum and to reject a proposal made by an entity empowered by the law. The Court decision implies that the President's referendum proposal should have been put to a plenary vote in the Assembly.

In his remarks to the media on Wednesday, President Radev also said that what is currently happening in the National Assembly is some kind of farce. He described it as "another breach of the law in the same case". His observation concerned a comment made earlier on Wednesday by National Assembly Deputy Chair Kostadin Angelov, who, while presiding over the plenary proceedings, said that Radev's referendum proposal cannot be put to the vote now, because the relevant documents have been returned to the Presidency.

"The excuses that they cannot submit this proposal to the plenary and vote on it as they should, are a lie," Radev said. "Their excuse is that my reasons and proposals were returned, but that does not correspond to the truth," the President said, adding that on May 13 he received from the legislature only a transcript of the instruction by the then chair, Nataliya Kiselova, but not his own documents. "My proposals and reasons are still in parliament, in their registry," the President pointed out.

"I call on the MPs, if they still have any dignity left, any respect for the will of the people and for the principles of democracy, to go today and take the proposal and the reasons, to submit them to the plenary, to debate and to vote," Radev said. "Let them state clearly whether they will comply with the will of the people or disregard it," he added.

The President further commented: "There must be a decision – that is what the law and the Constitutional Court ruling require. Instead of laws, this parliament produces lawlessness, scandals and disgust."