The prosecution "has done its job": In record time, the Sofia Court of Appeal confirmed the refusal to terminate "Vazrazhdane."

For a record ten days, the Sofia Court of Appeal has reviewed the appeal of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee at the request of a number of public figures for the prosecution to take action to terminate the ultra-nationalist political party "Vazrazhdane." The request was made in July last year and was signed by over 120 public figures - lawyers, journalists, actors, writers, doctors, and many others. After the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office refused to take action to terminate the "Vazrazhdane" party, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee appealed to the higher prosecutor's office, pointing out that numerous facts had been neglected and disregarded, and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had been misquoted. The appeal filed in January 2024 highlights new facts and actions by the "Vazrazhdane" party, primarily of an anti-Semitic nature.

Now the appellate prosecutor's office hastily states that even if there were violations of the Political Parties Act, they are not systemic, as required by the law. There is no discussion of the specific cases of the party's activities listed in the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee's appeal by numerous of its members. The main motive of the appellate prosecutor is that scrutiny of the party's activities cannot be requested because this activity is public.

The ruling also refers to the practice of dissolving parties by the ECHR. The prosecution cites the case of the Turkish party "Refah," stating that in this and another case, the violations for which the respective parties were banned are "extremely serious" and "cannot be compared" to the alleged violations of "Vazrazhdane" PP. However, these violations are not specified.

"The statements that the Strasbourg Court finds justifiable for terminating the party in the 'Refah' case are actually statements against the democratic legal order," commented Adela Kachaunova, Director of the Legal Program of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. "The whole society witnesses such statements from representatives of the 'Vazrazhdane' party in recent years, except the Bulgarian prosecution, which does not see or hear them," she added.

The ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Prosecutor's Office. In the meantime, regardless of the "regular" prosecutors, acting Chief Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov has special powers to refer the activity of the party to the Constitutional Court. However, there has been no reaction from Sarafov since July 2023.