Bulgaria Top Cop Laments Crisis after Blocked Appointment of Tarnished Magistrate

Commenting on the postponed swearing-in of controversial magistrate Veneta Markovska as a Constitutional Court judge, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said that Bulgaria faced an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

On Thursday, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev left the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected Constitutional Court judges just as Markovska was to be sworn in.

The move blocked Markovska's appointment as the oath is only considered valid if taken in the presence of the head of state.

Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Judicial Council, VSS, accepted the resignation of Veneta Markovska as Deputy Chair of the Supreme Administrative Court, VAS, clearing the path to the Constitutional Court for the magistrate suspected of corruption and trading in influence.

In a Friday interview for the morning broadcast of TV7, Tsvetanov refused to comment on the further development of the case, saying that the members of the Constitutional Court were the ones to come up with a solution.

Bulgaria's Interior Minister also declined to specify whether President Plevneliev's departure from the ceremony agreed with the Constitution.

"Let experts in Constitutional Law say whether there is a problem with the decision the President made yesterday," he noted.

Tsvetanov said that the case was a no-win situation because "all of the negative energy that came from all sides", adding that the solution to the problem would have been Markovska's resignation, as the Prime Minister Borisov had suggested.

The Interior Minister congratulated Georgi Angelov, Boris Velchev, and Anastas Anastasov, who were sworn in Thursday, and called for a swift exit from the crisis.

Markovska's appointment stirred a huge scandal in Bulgaria over a tipoff sent to Members of Parliament from the opposition and reports by investigative journalists raising suspicions of trading in influence and corruption.

The case "Markovska" "traveled" all the way to the European Commission, which warned Bulgaria twice about the possibility of issuing an interim report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.