The National Assembly is beginning work on amendments to the constitution that directly affect the judicial system and the work of the Supreme Judicial Council. The majority should submit the updated version of the amendments in writing by May 14, then the support of parliament will be sought. On Sunday, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov made a positive assessment of the government’s work, stating that infrastructure and construction work were the biggest reforms that had taken place in Bulgaria. After meetings with Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova and Minister of Social Policy Ivaylo Kalfin, again on Sunday, the premier supported the pension reform and stated that the trade unions’ demands in connection with the planned increase in the retirement age in the Security sector had been adopted, but that the concrete decisions would become clear at the Wednesday sitting of the Council of Ministers. As far as the healthcare reform was concerned, Boyko Borissov commented that Minister Petar Moskov was doing something that hadn’t been done in 25 years.

The planned reforms were part of the monthly reports of the Ivan Hadjiski Institute and of the Institute for Right-Wing Policy which were made public last week.

“April brought with it a heightened discourse about reforms with more and more voices being heard from different parts of the political spectrum, saying that the reforms weren’t happening,” says analyst Boris Popivanov. “Even though there has been talk of holding negotiations among the parties for reaching a consensus on constitutional amendments, we are far from any legislative road map on how these reforms should take place. That is why I think the Ivan Hadjiski Institute got it right when they came up with the label – reformation with no reforms, a lot of talking with no actions.”

Institute for Right-Wing Policy Chair Neno Dimov warned that their analysis shows that the stated reforms in the systems of healthcare and pension insurance were delayed.

“Unlike in pensioning and healthcare we consider the consensus attained by the administration for reforms in the judiciary a success. If the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms do not support it, something that is yet to be seen, they will have to explain why they do not support it as with their votes they form a constitutional majority. The consensus the government achieved during the voting in parliament of the judicial reform strategy is a prerequisite for the constitutional reforms that are necessary. Otherwise this would mean a clear case of sabotage of the reform by the socialist party and the opposition as a whole.”

The resignation of former Interior Minister Vesselin Vouchkov was the toughest trial for the cabinet, the Institute for Right-Wing Policy says. This crisis was tackled when Rumyana Bachvarova, who is also deputy prime minister was appointed to the post.

“The government is now stable,” Neno Dimov goes on to say. “Despite the poor communication, the cabinet is managing to overcome the problems it has itself created. In our report we state that the consensus taking shape among GERB – a blanket party, the Reformist Bloc – the heir to the right-wing parties of the transition and the Patriotic Front – as a patriotic formation - is a conservative consensus. It is based on the fundamental values: protecting national interests, protecting capitalism and the fundaments of Christian values. As time goes by we are seeing a clear-cut tendency – that the right-wing parties from this coalition have increasingly been finding this conservative consensus on which the future right-wing administration rests.”

In the words of Boris Popivanov the report of the Ivan Hadjiski Institute notes that the Bulgarian Socialist Party congress confirmed the radical leftist position of the party’s chair Mihail Mikov. The Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) has sprung back to action because it wants to demonstrate how important the party is in the formula of governance so as to turn it into a parallel political centre. As to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms the party has been trying to set the principle of communicating vessels in motion with the Patriotic Front, making its conflict with that party central to political life in the country.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev