Bulgaria Ex-PM Stanishev Urges EU Socialists to Be Proactive

Bulgaria’s former Prime Minister and Chair of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Sergey Stanishev, has called upon the Party of European Socialists to be more proactive.

Stanishev spokes Tuesday before the Eighth Congress of PES in Prague, the Czech Republic, saying the European Left must regain people’s trust and fight for a more socially responsible Europe, as quoted by BTA.

The Bulgarian Socialist leader stressed that today the European leftists had fewer MEPs and EU Commissioners which was the sign for an identity crisis, and crisis of the representation and the interests that the European Left stood for.

In his words, one thing the European Socialists could choose to do is to stand idly by hoping that the rightists will fail.

“This is not going to happen automatically but it is going to happen sooner or later,” Stanishev declared.

He did urge the Socialists to take on another road – that of following a proactive plan for a “more social Europe” because each of the PES members could help fight the effects of the global economic crisis using its government experience.

Stanishev shared some of his experience and that of his party during the 2005-2009 government term that it completed in July 2009. He said the Bulgarian Socialists were in a difficult coalition situation but nevertheless managed to do a lot in order to help the country reach the average EU standards and to provide for the social protection of the population.

“We did not have sufficient communication and we lost the race to a populist party offering inapplicable things, which, however, appeal to the people,” Stanishev told the PES Congress referring to the GERB party of current Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

“One cannot be a Socialist unless they strive for the better future of the people,” Stanishev concluded.