Pardon decrees: legal committee lacks quorum as ruling party stays away
The extraordinary sitting on publishing presidential pardons failed: only 10 of the required 12 MPs attended. Progressive Bulgaria sent only the committee chair.
Symbolic image · Photo: Лорд Бъмбъри / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The Bulgarian parliament's legal affairs committee failed to reach a quorum at an extraordinary sitting on Wednesday. It was due to consider at first reading an amendment to the act on the State Gazette, "Darzhaven Vestnik". The bill by Asen Vassilev, parliamentary group leader of Continue the Change (PP), and other MPs obliges the presidential administration to publish pardon decrees, including all previously unpublished ones. According to BNT, it covers decrees issued by presidents and vice presidents since 13 July 1991.
Twelve MPs were needed for a quorum; ten attended. All opposition groups were represented, but the ruling Progressive Bulgaria party sent only committee chair Yanka Tyankova. She noted the lack of quorum and declined to comment. The background is the dispute over the 2022 pardon of Ognyan Atanasov, convicted of drug trafficking in Greece, by then vice president and current president Iliana Iotova. A day earlier, an extraordinary plenary sitting on the case had already been cancelled for lack of a quorum.
"The more the ruling side blocks sittings, the clearer it becomes that they want to hide something," said Nikolay Denkov (PP), announcing that signatures would be collected for a new sitting. Petar Petrov of Vazrazhdane said it was the first time an extraordinary sitting of the committee had been boycotted, "and by the ruling majority". Nadezhda Yordanova of Democratic Bulgaria said the majority had "learned too quickly to use the tricks of the rules of procedure". Stoyu Stoev (PP) cited a 2012 Constitutional Court ruling.