Bulgaria’s Parliament accepts resignation of head of anti-corruption body
Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted on February 2 to accept the resignation of Sotir Tsatsarov as head of the anti-corruption and asset forfeiture commission.
Tsatsarov submitted his resignation to Parliament on January 17, subsequently telling a parliamentary committee that he was stepping down because of institutional pressure on him and because he wanted to preserve his dignity.
He had announced his intention to resign on January 13, soon before it was announced that his access to classified information had been withdrawn.
The ruling majority intends restructuring the commission into two separate bodies as part of wider reform, and also seeks the resignation of Ivan Geshev as Prosecutor-General as part of that reform.
The We Continue the Change party, one of the four in the ruling majority, described Tsatsarov’s resignation as overdue.
The resignation of Tsatsarov, which is to take effect on March 1, was accepted with 197 votes in favour, none against and with no abstentions.
The GERB-UDF coalition absented itself from the voting, having said during the debate that Tsatsarov should have attended the sitting.
Tsatsarov took office as head of the commission in December 2019 after completing a seven-year term as Prosecutor-General. By law, the head of the commission has a six-year term.
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