Constitutional Court rules that the appointment of former caretaker Economy Minister, Kiril Petkov, was unconstitutional

On October 27, 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled with a decision on constitutional case № 18 of 2021, that Decree № 129 of 10.05.2021 (promulgated SG, issue 39 of 12.05.2021 d.), with which the President of the Republic of Bulgaria appointed caretaker Minister of Economy, Kiril Petkov, was unconstitutional. According to the Constitution, a minister can be a Bulgarian citizen. At the time of his appointment, Kiril Petkov had a Canadian citizenship as well.

The decision was adopted by 11 votes. Judge Georgi Angelov signed the decision with a special opinion on the admissibility of the case.

The lawsuit was instituted on August 16 on a petition of 55 MPs of GERB-UDF, regarding the appointment of Kiril Petkov as Minister of Economy in the caretaker cabinet.

GERB-UDF parliamentary group submitted a request to the Constitutional Court for establishing a partial unconstitutionality of the appointment of the caretaker government. They ask the court to rule on whether the caretaker Economy Minister Kiril Petkov violated the Constitution if he had dual citizen at the time of his appointment.

"The question is whether this citizenship was valid at the time of his appointment. If he had dual citizenship, this means that the Constitution has been breached," Daniel Mitov added.

Minister Petkov stated that he had submitted an application for relinquishing his Canadian citizenship before taking office, but does not know if the procedure has been completed.

Petkov is a co-chair of “We Continue the Change” coalition, together with another former caretaker minister from the same government and is running in the November 14 parliamentary elections.