At its sitting on 18 November, 2025, the Constitutional Court delivered an interpretative decision on constitutional case No. 8/2025, reported by Judge Krasimir Vlahov.
Pursuant to Article 149, paragraph 1, item 1 of the Constitution, the Constitutional Court ruled that "the President of the National Assembly does not have the competence to assess the requirements established by law under which a national referendum may be held and to reject a proposal made by a body empowered by law. This competence, pursuant to Article 84, item 5 of the Constitution, belongs solely to the National Assembly."
In its reasoning, the Constitutional Court notes that, according to the Basic Law, the people constitute the sole source of state power, which is exercised by them directly or through the bodies provided for in the Constitution. Consequently, no representative of the people, and particularly the President of the National Assembly, has the competence to exercise power unilaterally and to decide on matters which the Constitution has entrusted solely to the collective body elected by the voters and exercising power on their behalf. This also applies to the competence of Parliament under Article 84 item 5 of the Constitution to decide on the holding of a national referendum.
The Court points out that the exclusive power of the National Assembly to adopt a decision to hold a national referendum inherently implies its exclusive competence to assess all the requirements laid down in the law concerning the admissibility of holding such a referendum, such as the questions that may be decided by a national referendum when the parliament is seized by the entities authorized to do so by law. According to the Court, this assessment is not merely a matter of procedure, but of constitutional competence.
The Court notes that, unlike the acts of the National Assembly, which are subject to constitutional review, the individual acts of its president are excluded from such review, which is also noted in the resolution admitting the president's request to the Constitutional Court. For this reason, the adoption of an individual act by the President of Parliament, which essentially obstructs the exercise of the exclusive constitutional competence of the national representative body, is unacceptable from the point of view of the Basic Law, because in practice it circumvents the established order for control over the acts of the National Assembly. As a result, the possibility of verifying conformity with the principles and provisions of the Constitution is thwarted, which risks calling into question and even depriving of content its supremacy in the exercise of state power.
Twelve constitutional judges participated in the sitting.
The decision was adopted with 11 votes in favor and one dissenting opinion, that of Judge Borislav Belazelkov.
Judges Atanas Semov and Sonya Yankulova presented their concurring opinions.
The opinion of Judge Atanas Semov and the dissenting opinion of Judge Borislav Belazelkov will be published on the Constitutional Court's website at a later date.
The full text of the Decision - https://www.constcourt.bg/bg/act-10189