site.btaUPDATED No State Subsidies for Parties with Criminally Charged Leaders, MRF - New Beginning Leader Moves

Draft amendments to the Political Parties Act, tabled by Movement for Rights and Freedoms - New Beginning (MRF - New Beginning) leader Delyan Peevski on Friday, provide for suspension of state subsidies and eviction from buildings owned by central and local government for political parties whose leaders, chairs or co-chairs are charged with serious intentional offences under the Penal Code.

Asked by reporters if he had anyone in particular in mind while drafting the bill, Peevski named Continue the Change Co-Chair Kiril Petkov and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Deputy Floor Leader Bozhidar Bozhanov, among a number of others. The bill provides for the sanctions to be dropped if the political leaders concerned are acquitted, if their charges are dropped, or if they are replaced by other individuals. Peevski said: "It is right that the Bulgarian citizens should be aware of how the money is spent. It cannot be spent by party leaders who are facing charges, this is inadmissible," Peevski argued.

In March, the prosecution service charges Bozhanov with official malfeasance and Petkov in connection with the arrests of Boyko Borisov, Vladislav Goranov and Sevdalina Arnaudova and with allegedly pressuring former electronic governance minister Alexander Yolovski. 

The reasoning attached to Peevski's bill states that the sanctions are intended to prevent individuals implicated in criminal offences and the political organizations they lead from access to and misuse of public resources. The idea is to safeguard the public interest against abuse of financial and tangible assets, corruption schemes and practices and detriment to public resources.

Approached about the Global Magnitsky Act, Peevski answered that "we are in the territory of Bulgaria, which is part of the EU," apparently implying that the Act is inoperative in this territory. In 2021, Peevski was designated by the US under the Global Magnitsky Act as an oligarch who "has regularly engaged in corruption, using influence peddling and bribes to protect himself from public scrutiny and exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society".

On Thursday, CC-DB moved draft amendments to the relevant laws under which sanctions imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act and other sanctions would apply in Bulgaria. "The idea of the revisions is to ensure the security of the financial system, reduce money laundering risks and improve the chances of Bulgaria being removed from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)," Bozhanov explained. One of the measures proposed is not to allocate municipal property to parties whose leaderships include sanctioned individuals.

Reacting to Peevski's draft legislation, Bozhanov said that Peevski was troubled by the legislative revisions proposed by CC-DB on the application of the Magnitsky sanctions in Bulgaria. "That is why he is striking back and is proposing unconstitutional provisions taking away the subsidy from parties which have been attacked by the prosecution service that he controls. If there are any democratic parties in the National Assembly, this bill will not pass," Bozhanov added.

"Peevski has a prosecution service of his own and uses it as he likes," Petkov commented for his part. "To his regret, he does not control the judges," he added.

According to CC-DB, Peevski's bill threatens not just them but all other parties as well. "It tells them: 'Unless you toe my line, you, too, may find yourselves without a subsidy when by prosecution service charges you.' We do not yield to such blackmail, and we hope that the other parties won't yield, either," said Bozhanov.