Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s party GERB said on March 10 2010 that it was to table in Parliament a motion to impeach President Georgi Purvanov, alleging that his recording and release of a transcript of a meeting with Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov violated Bulgaria’s constitution.
 
Dyankov met Purvanov, who was accompanied by two aides, at the President’s office on March 5 after a row erupted between Purvanov and the Finance Minister over remarks made on a March 1 television talk show.
 
After the March 5 meeting, Purvanov posted on the presidential website a transcript of the meeting. Among the consequences was a public complaint by Borissov that he had been "stabbed in the back" by Purvanov – Borissov had telephoned Purvanov to ask him to receive Dyankov – and a challenge by the Prime Minister to the President for both of them to resign their offices and fight an election.
 
On March 6, Speaker of Parliament Tsetska Tsacheva announced that she had requested the Presidency to deliver a copy of the recording to check it against the transcript on the presidential website, and to assess whether Purvanov violated the constitution.
 
In translation, article 32 of the Bulgarian constitution says that "no one shall be followed, photographed, filmed, recorded or subjected to any other similar activity without his knowledge or despite his express disapproval, except when such actions are permitted by law".
 
Borissov’s party GERB said that Dyankov had not been aware that the meeting was being recorded and was not asked for permission to make the recording public.
 
Other parties have called for Purvanov to be impeached. The right-wing Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and ultra-nationalists Ataka were the first to do so.
 
For a motion to impeach to be referred to Bulgaria’s Constitutional Court, it must be requested with the backing of the signatures of 60 MPs and a minimum of 161 votes in the country’s 240-seat unicameral Parliament.
 
The Bulgarian Socialist Party, of which Purvanov was leader before becoming head of state in January 2002, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which was a member of the socialist-led governing coalition that was in office from 2005 to 2009, have rejected calls for Purvanov’s impeachment.
 
The MRF saw no constitutional or legal grounds to unseat President Purvanov, deputy leader Lyutvi Mestean told journalists on March 10.

Yane Yanev's Order Law and Justice party, which lost its status as an official parliamentary group because one of its members quit in a move that Yanev alleged was the doing of Borissov, said that it would not support the impeachment. Yanev has called the controversy a "sham" and called for the resignation of Dyankov.

Purvanov’s deputy, Angel Marin – who would take office to serve out the remainder of the presidential term should Purvanov be ousted – earlier told journalists that he had called Purvanov to congratulate him after reading the transcript. Any impeachment procedure against Purvanov was doomed, Marin said.
 
GERB and commentators sympathetic to GERB have described Purvanov’s action in releasing the transcript as an attempt to reignite his political career after leaving office.
 
The Bulgarian constitution limits presidents to a maximum of two terms. Purvanov was elected in October 2006 to serve a second term. A term of office lasts five years.
 
At first sight, arithmetic does not appear to be on the side of a motion to impeach. If all GERB, Blue Coalition and Ataka MPs vote in favour, they have 152 votes, meaning that MPs from other parties that have rejected the idea of impeachment would have to break ranks for the vote to succeed.