Bulgaria's Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that parts of the 2026 state budget law break the constitution, but it did not strike down the whole law.

The court declared unconstitutional changes to paragraphs 1 to 4 of Article 355 of the Labour Code and to paragraph 2 of Article 218 of the Judicial System Act. Both were brought in through the budget's transitional and final provisions.

The court rejected the request to declare the entire law unconstitutional. It also turned down the request on paragraph 46 of the same provisions. MPs and other bodies had filed the requests.

Temenuzhka Petkova, a former finance minister from the GERB-SDS parliamentary group, commented on the ruling at a briefing in parliament. She called it a grave precedent that "opens Pandora's box". From now on, she said, any budget can have whatever deficit the government decides.

GERB wanted the whole 2026 budget declared unconstitutional, citing a gross breach of the Public Finance Act and of the rule of law. Petkova said that if this had happened, the government would have had to resign.

She said the court confirms GERB's claim of a gross breach of the Public Finance Act, but leaves it to the National Assembly to fix it. Petkova explained that when an annual budget breaks the law that sets the rules for budgets, it breaks the rule of law, one of the core principles of the constitution.

To fix the breach, the ruling Progressive Bulgaria (PB) party must bring a budget bill to parliament, Petkova said. She said PB flatly refuses. PB and the government defend the state budget.

Petkova also said the ruling did not surprise her, because half of the court's members were picked by Rumen Radev when he was president. She said no professor has given an opinion backing the position of PB and the government.

Today, once again, parliament failed to gather a quorum for an extraordinary sitting. Asked why, Petkova pointed to PB for an answer and said she believes they do not want publicity.

Follow-up: Prodanov says Constitutional Court budget ruling is a win for financial stability