The Istanbul Convention blurs the boundaries between the sexes and this would make it harder to fight domestic violence. It therefore contradicts the constitution, the Constitutional Court decided on Friday with a majority of 8 to 4 votes.

Behind this decision are Boris Velchev, Tsanka Tsankova, Stefka Stoeva, Kety Markova, Anastas Anastasov, Grozdan Iliev, Mariana Karagyozova-Finkova and Tanya Raykovska. Against it are Rumen Nenkov, Georgi Angelov, Konstantin Penchev and Philip Dimitrov.

"In the Convention, by defining gender as a social construct, the gender boundaries of men and women are being relativised, but if society loses the ability to distinguish woman and man, the fight against violence against women remains only formal, but unfulfilled commitment, "said the decision, quoted by Mediapool.

GERB initially declared the Convention its priority but then withdrawn it from parliament under the pressure of the BSP and their "patriotic" partners in the ruling coalition .

Then the decision was left to the CC. Until now, countries in the EU that have not ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence are Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovakia and the UK.