Bulgarian Socialists Makes Own Functionary Apologize for 'AIDS Scandal'

BSP MPs Maya Manolova (right) and Anton Kutev (left) pictured together in August 2012 before Kutev spurred the "Socialist AIDS" scandal. Photo by BGNES

The Control Commission of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party has recommended that its Media Policy Secretary Anton Kutev issue an apology for comparing socialism to AIDS.

Kutev, one of the most seasoned functionaries of the BSP in the recent years, recently caused an outrage among the ranks of his own party with the botched comparison in which he apparently sought to demonstrate the power and "contagiousness" of socialism by declaring that it gets transmitted sexually and/or is hereditary.

"The Control Commission of the BSP recommends that Anton Kutev apologize immediately and unequivocally for comparing the party to AIDS," Commission chairwoman Maya Manolovoa declared Tuesday.

"We are neither the inquisition, nor a censor, we are a party institution that cannot punish Socialists for inadequate statements or dumb jokes, all the more so because if we follow this logic some of the other political parties will have to remove all of their members," Manolova stated, reminding a 2008 statement by now Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov who described the Bulgarian pensioners and ethnic minorities as "bad human material".

"Kutev ought to count to 10 before producing his next gaffe," she added.

In her words, the emergence of the Socialist AIDS scandal has helped the ruling center-right party GERB by diverting attention from its blunders.

"We must really focus on the issues that the people expect from us to focus on – the galloping growth of food and energy prices, the inflation, the unemployment, and the constant gaffes of the government," Manolova concluded.

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