The ideological vacuum in the "right" parties through the prism of judicial reform

The last few days of political (and public) life were quite intense and tense. As is well known, the National Assembly did not adopt the most important elements of the changes to the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, proposed by the now former Minister of Justice Hristo Ivanov and supported by the Reformist Bloc. Instead, compromise proposals submitted by the ABV between the two readings were voted on, which, however, eliminated the foundation of the reform – control of the prosecutor's office by other authorities and the independence of the court. After this failure, Ivanov resigned, and the leader of the DSB Radan Kanev withdrew his support from the government.

But this text is not dedicated to the judicial reform, which was subjected to detailed dissection in the media space by more than one author. From the whole drama, however, we can draw some curious conclusions and reflections and answer some important questions. Namely – is the current government of Bulgaria right-wing and do we have right-wing parties at all in the 43rd National Assembly?*

What are the characteristics of right-wing political ideas? First, we must clarify that the understandings imposed by European social democrats and American progressive liberals, that the “right” means a struggle for inequality, and the left for equality and justice, are completely untenable. True right-wing politics is consolidated around the idea of individual freedom, the supremacy of private property, and a small state with minimal interference in people's lives. For reference – Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Where is the connection with judicial reform? While for almost all other sectors we can safely say that the right-wing solution to the problems is a complete withdrawal of the state, this is not exactly the case with the judicial system. It should be a secure and predictable guarantor of property rights, without which we cannot lead a normal life and enjoy prosperity. Accordingly, the normal actions of a right-wing government and right-wing parties in the National Assembly would be to propose and fight for the adoption of such laws that would reform the judicial system in such a way that it meets the above-mentioned condition.

The ideas of Hristo Ivanov and the Reformist Bloc:

They largely defended right-wing political principles. The changes proposed in the summer would largely solve some important problems, without being too revolutionary, ambitious or unrealistic. All MPs from the Reformist Bloc, led by Radan Kanev, expressed unconditional support for their minister and a desire to achieve the goals. Prime Minister Borisov, as well as the GERB parliamentary group, also initially adopted the minister's ideas. Then, as is known, it became clear that the necessary 160 votes for a change in the Constitution could not be collected and the move was made to the "Historic Compromise".

Can compromises be made with right-wing reforms? The answer is that it can, but it should not. It is necessary to clearly distinguish when the compromise is cosmetic and when it is substantial. It is obvious that if the compromise leads to two traditionally left-leaning parties (DPS and ABV) supporting it, then the line has been crossed. But despite this, there was some hope that, even if it was a compromise, the desired changes could still happen if the proposals agreed upon at the first reading were adopted.

What did December 9th show us?

As we well know, on that day the National Assembly rejected the essential part of Hristo Ivanov's reform and accepted the amendments submitted by ABV. In the vote, 204 deputies, including those from GERB, supported the proposal of Parvanov's people. These events show very clearly the following – the government of Boyko Borisov is by no means right-wing, and in the Parliament all parties are left-wing, with small individual exceptions.

Tsvetan Tsvetanov's explanation was that anyway the votes of GERB and RB were not enough, it was better to support the other proposal in order to have a consensus. Of course, a right-wing party would never use such an argument and would never accept a compromise that discredits the idea of an independent court protecting property. Moreover, a right-wing party would accept the result of the vote on December 9 as a failure and would fight with all its might and means to obtain the necessary support. But since the total number of deputies from GERB and RB is obviously 107, far less than necessary, the logical reaction of the "right-wing government", supported by the "right-wing parties", would be to request a vote of confidence from the National Assembly or directly initiate the convening of early parliamentary elections, which would aim to bring in more deputies from the "right-wing parties" so that the desired reforms could be implemented.

Reactions:

They were quite clear and unambiguous. Tsetska Tsacheva said that this was a “good day for Bulgarian democracy,” and Boyko Borisov expressed satisfaction with the unity and agreement demonstrated by the Parliament. The people who demonstrated a position inherent to the right-wing idea can be counted on the fingers of one’s fingers – Hristo Ivanov resigned, and Radan Kanev, Grozdan Karadjov, Petar Slavov, Martin Dimitrov went into opposition. The lack of an immediate reaction from the entire Reformist Bloc clearly shows that they cannot align themselves in the right-wing political space at all. The position “We will get together, we will think and then we will decide” should not be on the agenda at all in such a situation. Moreover – Bozhidar Lukarski stated that he would not resign from the post of Minister of Economy, and the UDF would not withdraw its support from the Cabinet. In Raden Kanev’s party, the situation is even more ridiculous. DSB announced that it was withdrawing its support from the cabinet, but Petar Moskov would remain Minister of Health. At the same time, DSB stated that they supported Moskov's reforms (which are definitely left-wing), and he was leaving the post of Deputy Chairman of DSB.

All these phenomena show us that to date in the National Assembly the number of deputies with a true right-wing political orientation is so small that it is even insufficient to form an independent parliamentary group (the minimum number for this is 10). The myth of the "right-wing government", supported by the "right-wing parties" GERB and the Reformist Bloc, is finally shattered and the feeling is reinforced that 26 years later, socialism has not yet gone.

* In fact, looking at the policies implemented by the government over the past year and the mood in the National Assembly, we do not need to look at the judicial reform to confirm that the right-wing political idea is absent. Government spending continues to grow, the healthcare reform turned out to be completely left-wing in design, there is no education reform, new taxes are being introduced, the Prime Minister advises local authorities to increase local ones, an attempt was made to nationalize private pension funds, insurance thresholds are being increased, the minimum wage is being increased, and more, and more...

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