Yankulov: There is no legal chaos surrounding Gyurov's appointment, the problem is in the management of the judicial system

According to caretaker Minister of Justice Andrey Yankulov, there is no legal chaos surrounding the appointment of caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov.

“The legal chaos exists only in the minds of those who try to use this topic for elementary political propaganda,” Yankulov stated on BNT. He commented on Gyurov's case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), related to a potential conflict with EU law, and the conclusion of the Advocate General to the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the requirements for the management of the BNB.

“The media created some speculations that the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union had allegedly ruled on the legality of the temporary removal of Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov from the position of Deputy Governor of the BNB, which is not true – there is no such ruling by the Advocate General,” said Andrey Yankulov. According to him, the first speculation was followed by additional ones – how this leads to the illegitimacy of Gyurov's appointment and his actions, the actions of the government. The Minister of Justice reminded that he wrote a post on social networks yesterday with a legal commentary on the topic.

Regarding the legitimacy of the Prime Minister, Yankulov said that there is absolutely no problem, because at the moment when the President appoints Andrey Gyurov by decree, he is the Deputy Governor of the BNB - there is no dispute about this. “This is also the position of the parliament in the majority of the same political leaders who are now speaking, because when Mr. Gyurov submitted his resignation, along with his appointment as caretaker Prime Minister, the parliament then decided that his powers as Deputy Governor were terminated - there is no way to terminate something that does not exist,” noted Gyurov.

The state of the judicial system is objectively not particularly good, and this is obvious to everyone, said the caretaker Minister of Justice. In order to change this, to have a different development of specific cases and proceedings, especially those that concern corruption at the high levels of power - there our failure is absolute, in order to have a general change, it must be sought in the management of the judicial system. Until it is achieved, for the system to start operating in a completely different way from its peak, the problems in the individual cases will continue,” noted Andrey Yankulov in response to a question about a specific case to which there is public interest. 

In what different state should justice be, after at the top of the prosecution itself, one of the most important bodies of the system of state administration in general, we have an illegitimate chief prosecutor, after at the top of the most important prosecution in the country – the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, we have a head – Mrs. Rusinova, for whom things are being publicly released, accusations from the Bulgarian European prosecutor, that Rusinova introduced her into the criminal network “The Eight Dwarfs”, the minister added. According to him, after the system is managed in this way, it will produce such results from the individual cases. In order to solve the general problem, one must start from the key positions, summed up Andrey Yankulov.

According to him, how exactly criminal influence happens in the system should have been clarified in the years back –  when the evidence for the existence of the criminal networks of “The Eight Dwarfs” and Martin Bojanov – the Notary – was announced.  They were announced by the non-governmental organization, of which I was part until recently, then there was no institutional reaction either at the level of the prosecutor's office, or institutionally, Yankulov added. 

The real problem is that the prosecution college of the Supreme Judicial Council a few weeks ago, when considering my proposal to appoint a different acting chief prosecutor from Mr. Sarafov, it actually said that he is permanently in the post, unless he himself wishes to resign, commented the caretaker Minister of Justice.

According to him, this contradicts the principles of the rule of law.