site.btaPolitical Calls for Appointments, Dismissals Amount to Pressure on Judiciary, Magistrates' Associations Warn

Political calls for the removal or appointment of specific individuals to leadership positions in the judiciary can be interpreted solely as a form of pressure, according to a position statement by the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria (APB) and the Chamber of Investigators in Bulgaria (CIB), released on Friday.

According to the two organizations, such actions create a risk of blocking criminal proceedings, destabilizing the judicial system, and undermining public trust, while at the same time serving only narrow party interests and short-term political visibility.

“The independence of the judiciary as a guarantor of the rule of law is among the most fundamental achievements of modern democratic society. For this very reason, we cannot remain indifferent when, once again, we witness public and deliberate attempts at direct interference in the work of the judiciary by individual political figures on the eve of elections,” the two associations said.

They added that exerting direct or indirect pressure on the Supreme Judicial Council's (SJC) Prosecutors Chamber in order to take personnel decisions serving specific political goals is unacceptable. Even more troubling, they argued, is that “this practice is turning into a sustained model of political behaviour that becomes active at key moments – during political crises, election campaigns, the consideration of cases of high public interest, or when procedural actions are taken against individuals with immunity or with significant economic and lobbying resources”.

The associations recalled the “chronology of processes leading to the current escalation of tension around the judiciary”. For years, the National Assembly has failed to fulfil its constitutional obligation to elect a new composition of the Supreme Judicial Council, which has objectively led to the extension of the mandates of the current members by operation of law.

According to the two organizations, there is a growing tendency in the public sphere to deliberately conflate legal issues with political rhetoric, whereby institutional problems are personalized and turned into a tool for accumulating short-term political gains.

The Yes, Bulgaria party Thursday called for the dismissal of Borislav Sarafov as acting Prosecutor General and the appointment of a new one, because "the central issue in 2026 is legitimate governance in the judiciary and the conduct of fair elections." Nadejda Iordanova, Co-floor Leader of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) of which Yes, Bulgaria is a member, told a news conference that with the prosecution service headed by Sarafov, fair elections are impossible.