Last Friday, the long-delayed and keenly expected bill that would allow for the State to confiscate illegally acquired assets of people under investigation or on trial, but without a conviction, misfired in plenary hall when only 71 Members of Parliament supported it.

In exception of MPs from the ruling GERB party, all other parliamentary groups and independent MPs voted against the bill. For the very first time, however, GERB MPs showed discord with about 40 of them missing from plenary hall.

The opposition to the bill, which was worked on for a long time, was approved by the Venice Commission, and was promised by the ruling GERB, was so strong that even Delyan Peevski - media mogul, whose publications are said to be serving GERB, and MP from the ethnic Turkish party, DPS, made a rare appearance to cast his vote, prompting jokes from his colleagues that he might not know how to do it.

Despite expectations the bill would bring long-delayed revenge for common folk and justice for those robbing Bulgaria in the last 20 years, many legal experts and people from the public oppose it. They say it is in conflict with the entire legal system of the country, with the postulates of innocent until proven guilty, the right of defense, the need of sound evidence, among others, and has no definition of what is to be considered criminal activity.

The time frame of 20 years to back-probe the assets all while tax records are to be kept for 5 years, and the amount of everything above BGN 150 000 (some say it is too high, others too low) are also subject to debate.

There are serious speculations in the press and in the society the GERB MPs missing from plenary hall were told to do so, since they are known to march on the orders of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and this no-show cannot be simply attributed to the notorious laziness of Bulgarian policymakers. Such trick would have aimed at showing that GERB wanted to fulfill the promise, but a simple coincidence failed the passing of the bill, and secured its delay for another three months.

Others say the vote was the personal orchestration of Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, because the author of the bill – Justice Minister, Margarita Popova, has seriously clashed with him on several occasions.

As most everything else in Bulgaria, what exactly happened is murky and will remain such.

One real question here is – if it is passed, how and to what extend would this bill be enforced? Bulgaria already has tough laws against criminals and very few convictions...

Another one is, why would certain people - a number of current MPs and politicians, want to pass such bill, when there are rumors and independent media publications, backed by recently released by WikiLeaks and the investigative journalism site Bivol.bg US diplomatic cables that these same people have ties with organized crime, murky deals, and wealth with unclear origin?

Confiscation of illegally acquired properties is "dangerous waters" for Bulgaria's politicians from the transition period. No wonder American Ambassador, James Warlick, stood lonely in voicing disappointment from the bill's collapse...

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