The Bulgarian Parliament approved a new law on religions on 19 December 2002, reconfirming the dominant role of the Orthodox Church, to which some 85% of the population belong. Parliament also decided that the Orthodox Church – as the “traditional religion” – shall not be required to be registered by the civil administration to be officially recognized, in contrast to all the other religions present in Bulgaria, including Islam which represents some 12% of the population. Bulgarian MP Borislav Tzekov, who drafted the law, explained that Parliament wished to bring in new legislation to limit as far as possible the activities of the sects which often act “against national security and public health”. The law will permit the Orthodox Church and the other religious communities to claim back the properties confiscated from them during the Communist regime. But the bill has proved controversial: the vote in parliament was boycotted by the representatives both of the Movement for Rights and Liberties (MRL), the party of the Turkish minority (Moslem in religion), and of the Union of the Democratic Forces (UDF). The Churches and religious communities also expressed their dissent: the leaders of the Moslem community, Catholic Church and Evangelic Churches signed a joint declaration, urging the President of the Republic to use his power of veto to repeal the law.
