ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 28, No. 1 (BG)

April 2020

Bulgaria political briefing: Emergency Legislation and Political Clashes in in the Context of a Covid- 19 Pandemic Evgeniy Kandilarov

1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

+36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin

Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

Emergency Legislation and Political Clashes in Bulgaria in the Context of a Covid- 19 Pandemic

For the first time in Bulgarian modern history, a State of Emergency has been voted into effect. The vote was approved unanimously by Parliament on March 13, at the proposal of the government, to enable augmented responses to Covid-19 new coronavirus. The State of Emergency will be in effect until April 13. An extension will require a further vote by the National Assembly. It is expected that the measures will include a one-year sentence of imprisonment for those who break their quarantine. Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev told in a briefing after the vote in the National Assembly that the intention was to untie the hands of state institutions so that they could take steps not currently implemented, including a fast-track procedure between officials, the government and parliamentary committees to get legislation passed urgently. How a State of Emergency works in Bulgaria is governed by provisions in the constitution, the Disaster Protection Act and the Defence Act. Under the Defence Act, a State of Emergency entitles the state authorities and the armed forces to restrict or prohibit civilian flights, impose restrictions and special rules regarding shipping, and restrictions on crossing Bulgaria’s borders. It is expected that bans may be imposed on people travelling from certain countries may be barred from entering Bulgaria, and that Bulgarians may be banned from travel to certain countries. The authorities also are entitled to restrict movements on major thoroughfares, the movement of trains and impose controls on the movement of passengers and goods. Access to government agencies may be restricted. Some laws may be suspended. If this happens, a public announcement is required. In spite of the state of emergency, some constitutional rights are untouched and remain in effect. These include the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture, to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or to forced assimilation, the right not to be subjected to medical, scientific or other experiments without his or her voluntary written consent. Criminal liability remains in force. No one shall be compelled to plead guilty or be convicted solely on the basis of his / her confession. Everyone has the right to defense against unlawful interference with his private and family life and against encroachment on his honor, dignity and reputation. Freedom of thought cannot be restricted.

1

The measures in the current situation are expected to include conferring on the government the power to decree closures of public places such as theatres, concert halls and discos, as well as schools and universities. Bulgarian Parliament approved the second reading of the bill on State of Emergency measures after a marathon 13-hour sitting on March 20, intended to limit the spread and overcome the consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic. Drafted by the Justice Ministry and tabled late on March 16, the bill was heavily amended between readings, prompting lively debates among MPs from the government coalition and the opposition, both during the committee hearing on March 19 and on the House floor. The bulk of the bill focuses on the anti-epidemic measures already ordered by Health Minister Kiril Ananiev on March 13, while allowing for more drastic measures that could be implemented at the recommendation of the Covid-19 crisis staff. Most of the amendments were focused on the bill’s transitional and final provisions, which contained changes to a number of other laws, including the Penal Code, Labor Code and Social Security Code, among others. Amendments to the Penal Code envision a prison term of up to three years and fines of up to 10 000 leva (about 5100 euro) for disseminating “untrue information about the spreading of an infectious disease”. Among those that caused the most consternation among opposition MPs was the provision that allowed the use of armed forces to enforce State of Emergency measures – including ID checks and preventing the movement of persons, powers that are otherwise limited only to the police. The opposition was also strongly opposed to an amendment that gave authorities the right to request location data of mobile devices from telecom providers. Ruling coalition MPs argued that this was needed to ensure self-isolation orders were not being breached, but the opposition saw a dangerous encroachment on individual freedoms. Both amendments were adopted despite the opposition’s arguments. Just two days after that the Bulgarian President Roumen Radev imposed a partial veto on the State of Emergency Measures Bill. Radev announced the veto on two provisions of the bill in a televised address on March 22, which drew a swift and scathing rebuke from Prime Minister Boiko Borissov several hours later. The provisions vetoed by Radev – amendments to the Penal Code that would have imposed heavy fines and carried possible jail terms for spreading false information, and a clause aimed at preventing profiteering by requiring retailers to sell goods at the same prices as before the State of Emergency was declared – were struck from the bill. Bulgarian president motivated his decision to veto part of the emergency measures with the argument that "There is no one-size-fits-all definition of 'false information', but on this basis

2

Bulgarian citizens are threatened with fines and prison terms. Experts, journalists, and citizens will be forced to censor themselves in the context of a rapid transformation of our knowledge about the epidemic, and a need to compare alternative positions in this regard". The president, however, emphasized the rule that punishes with three years in prison and a 10,000 lev fine (5,000 Euros) "those who spread [...] false information on the spread of the epidemic", and which the government intends to keep in force even after the end of the current crisis. In particularly serious cases, penalties could be increased to 5 years of imprisonment and fines of up to 50,000 lev (25,000 Euros). Radev defined the law requires emergency measures against the coronavirus outbreak as inadequate. "Bulgarians do not need threats but support", the Bulgarian head of state firmly said. According to him no battle has ever been won with fear and a total blockade will only exacerbate the crisis. This television address of the President brought the end of the political truce between Rumen Radev and Prime Minister Boiko Borissov for the sake of the fight against Covid-19, as Borissov hit back at Radev with accusations of breaking his word. At a briefing lasting more than 90 minutes and broadcast live, Borissov, holding a printout of Radev’s statement, lashed out with point-by-point rejection of what the President had said in a live broadcast to the nation. Repeatedly, Borissov, who along with members of the Cabinet and the crisis staff met Radev at the Presidency two days earlier, emphasised that at that meeting, Radev had accepted the measures proposed and had described them as timely. Borissov asked who had got Radev to change his stance and the direct accusation was that he did it under the influence of the Bulgarian Socialist Party. The presidential veto sparked the anger of Prime Minister which can be easily seen in his words: "I don't think I saw Queen Elizabeth or any other European head of state contest the measures taken by their own governments". The Prime Minister directly accused Radev of populism and political opportunism. Responding to the President’s criticisms about the bill’s provisions handing expanded powers to the military to control the civilian population, Borissov was caustic, saying that the intention was not to put tanks on the streets but to have the military available to assist if needed to make deliveries to pensioners and keep order if people put health at risk by gathering in large groups. He rejected Radev’s assertion that the government was intruding on the President’s prerogatives as commander in chief of the armed forces. Borissov expressed consternation at Radev’s charge that the bill’s provisions for heavy fines for posting false information amounted to extinguishing the last remnants of free speech

3 in Bulgaria. According to the prime minister, the criminalization of "fake-news" on coronavirus had the sole purpose of avoiding the spread of panic in the population. Repeatedly likening the fight against Covid-19 to a war, Borissov said that Radev had generated bad energy and a bad environment. Borissov, several times in his remarks, emphasised the need for national unity and a national effort as the only way to get through the crisis. In conclusion, despite the confidence flaunted by the Prime Minister, the parliament convened again on Monday 23rd to discuss and vote on the veto imposed by President Roumen Radev on the State of Emergency measures bill. In fact, despite the institutional clash with Radev, the Prime Minister asked his parliamentary group to approve the veto, in order to quickly and without further delay pass the package of emergency rules already voted. The veto was backed by the senior partner in government coalition, Borissov’s Gerb, and one of its coalition partners, as well as the two largest opposition parties, the socialists and the predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms. Some of Gerb’s MPs abstained and the second of two ultra-nationalist parties that form its junior coalition partner opposed the veto. MPs from the smallest party in Parliament, populist Volya, did not attend the sitting, having also walked out during the debate to pass the bill at second reading on March 20. In total, 118 MPs backed the veto, 14 were opposed and 56 abstained. While the controversial norm on "false information" was rejected, the debate ignited another, even more controversial measure that emerged after the official publication of the new provisions. In order to monitor the people placed under compulsory quarantine Bulgarian police forces can request and obtain from the telephone and Internet operators information concerning citizens' private communications. Such data will enable the police to trace the physical position of citizens and monitor who they talked to and which sites they visited (but not the content of conversations or communications via the Internet). Interior minister Mladen Marinov reassured citizens that the new legislation only applies to people under compulsory quarantine, and the procedure will continue to be supervised by the courts. So according to him the Police access to citizens' telephone and Internet data will not be uncontrolled. However, many remain deeply skeptical about the real impact of the new norms. Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted on March 26 to suspend regular sittings and convene only for legislation related to the State of Emergency or other urgent legislative amendments. Questions to Cabinet ministers will be solely in written form. BSP leader Kornelia Ninova, opposing the vote, said that it amounted to suspending the parliamentary republic and the constitution. “The dictatorship comes into force tomorrow,” she said. Meanwhile Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers on April 1 decided to propose to the Parliament to extend the state of

4 emergency to 13 May 2020. The Speaker of Bulgaria’s National Assembly, Tsveta Karayancheva, has called a special sitting to be held on April 3. On the agenda is the proposal about the extension of the State of Emergency for one more month. The strongest argument for that is the growing number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Bulgaria which rose on April 3 to a total of 485 people. This total includes 14 previous deaths, and 30 patients who had been discharged from hospital after recovering. The majority of the Bulgarian population approves the restrictive emergency legislation in the hope that it will indeed enable Bulgarians to emerge from this humanitarian crisis with as little loss as possible.

5