site.btaBSP Leader Says Her Party "Saved Bulgaria from Istanbul Convention" after Parliament Passes Revisions to Protection Against Domestic Violence Act

"For the third time BSP [Bulgarian Socialist Party] protected the Constitution and saved Bulgaria from the Istanbul Convention," BSP leader Korneliya Ninova said Monday at a briefing in parliament. Earlier on Monday, the National Assembly conclusively adopted revisions to the Protection Against Domestic Violence Act. The bill, submitted by Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and GERB-UDF, was adopted at the first and second reading during Parliament's extraordinary session.

The initial proposal of CC-DB MP Nadezhda Yordanova on the term "intimate relationship" was that it should be a relationship between two persons. During the debate, MPs from various groups criticised the definition. The socialists proposed that it should be clarified that it refers to two natural persons, male and female, which was finally accepted.

Ninova said that Yordanova's proposal for a definition of "intimate relationship" assumed the existence of a relationship between two persons without specifying their gender. She said that her party believes that this was opening a door to violating Bulgaria's constitutional norm that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. She said that as a result of seven hours of fighting and persuasion, arguments in favour of the Constitution, the family and Bulgarian traditions, Parliament was able to push through a BSP proposal in the text that an "intimate relationship" could be one between two individuals of male and female sex. Ninova thanked the MPs from the other parliamentary groups who had supported her party's proposal.

Asked if BSP were not concerned that same-sex couples would not be protected from domestic violence, Ninova said that protection from domestic violence should mostly be implemented through the Penal Code. She added that all people, even those of different sexual orientation, are protected against domestic violence as a crime by the Penal Code. 

Proving an intimate relationship as a preliminary evidence to hold someone responsible for domestic violence is very difficult, almost impossible to prove as CC-DB, GERB and MRF have written in their proposal, Ninova said. According to her, their text will make the process more difficult, slow it down, the cases will drag on, expire and the abusers will count on that. 

The amendments extend the range of people falling under the Act to include those in an intimate relationship lasting more than 60 days.

"Thus, you can be beaten in an intimate relationship until the 59th day and this is not [domestic] violence and will not be prosecuted by this law, but after the 60th day it will be violence and will be prosecuted by the law," Ninova said. In her words, this is an absurd text.