Stanishev Vows to Make PES Presidency Work for Bulgaria

Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergey Stanishev will chair PES for a year. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergey Stanishev, who was voted to be interim chair of the Party of European Socialists, said his new position will enable him to do more for his country.

"The fact that PES is being chaired by a Bulgarian is a great opportunity for our country to have its voice heard better," said Stanishev for the Bulgarian National Radio Sunday.

Friday Stanishev was voted to chair PES until November 2012, when a regular congress of the party will elect its next leader.

The move was necessitated after Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, who chaired the party until now, submitted his resignation for personal reasons.

"The chairmanship of PES is not only a great achievement for me as a person, but even more it is an important acknowledgement for the Bulgarian Socialist Party," said Stanishev Sunday.

"Our party took a long road to be transformed in to a modern European socialist party, before becoming a PES member in 2005 and reaching this point now," commentedd Stanishev, who was Bulgaria's PM 2005-9.

He is the first Eastern European to come at the helm of the European Socialists.

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