Judicial Council picks new acting prosecutor general today – with a single candidate

Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) plenum decides on Thursday who will lead the prosecution service on an interim basis. The sole candidate is Deputy Prosecutor General Magdalena Lazarova-Prodanova. The Prosecutors' Chamber unanimously nominated her on Wednesday with nine votes because she is the most senior deputy. The term of current acting chief Vanya Stefanova ends on 22 October; her successor is due to take over on 23 October for six months.

Justice Minister Nikolay Naydenov had asked the chamber to give the plenum a real choice among several candidates with clear plans for the next six months, arguing seniority should not be decisive. The chamber declined, noting that each of the five previous such procedures also had only one candidate.

Lazarova-Prodanova has nearly 30 years of legal experience. She served as a prosecutor in Blagoevgrad, as an SJC member elected by parliament from 2012 to 2017 and later as a judge at the Sofia Court of Appeal. She has been a deputy prosecutor general since May 2025. No result of the vote was available at the time of writing.