Reelected Bulgarian Socialist Leader Declares End of Split

Former Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev (l), who was just reelected leader of Bulgaria's Socialists, vows to work for the consolidation of the left wing. Photo by BGNES

Sergey Stanishev, the reelected leader of Bulgaria's main opposition formation, the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, declared Sunday that the recent split in Socialist rang must be healed now.

Stanishev, who is also a former Prime Minister and current Chairman of the Party of European Socialists, PES, was reelected late Saturday evening to lead BSP.

The delegates of the party's 48th congress had to choose between him and Georgi Kadiev, former candidate for Mayor of Sofia. According to final results, 77% have voted for Stanishev and 20% for Kadiev.

The main adversary of Stanishev – former President, Georgi Parvanov (2002 – 2012), who recently finished his second term in office and who was BSP leader before being elected Head of State, surprisingly withdrew Saturday, saying the forum was "not ready for the change." Before that he strongly criticized the ex PM, declaring the latter was "clogging the party."

"I do not feel like a champagne cork and the party is not a champagne bottle. It is true, and this is not a joke, because the vote was firm and clear and opens opportunities for consolidation; it expresses the delegates' will for consolidation," is how Stanishev responded Sunday to the criticism.

He stressed that the consolidation will be, as usual for the Socialists, the common cause – to win voters' trust and to prevail over the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB.

The new-old BSP leader reiterated he expects snap elections and sees them as a strong possibility for two main reasons – the melting fiscal reserve, left by his Three-Way Coalition Cabinet and GERB's fears from regular elections.

"GERB are a very strongly-motivated group for seizing power and abuse of power and they count on Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov's election machine. They realize that they will have a hard time at regular elections where the entire bad legacy and detrimental results of their rule would emerge," Stanishev further pointed out, adding the possibility for snap elections is strongly considered by the Socialists, who are in the midst of establishing national election headquarters.

The BSP leader stressed once again his party can score an election victory only under the conditions of strong political will, consolidation, long-term vision for Bulgaria to bring the transition period and the economic crisis to an end, and a concrete program for the first year of the term in office.

He declared his readiness to work with every single BSP member and every single individual who wants to see GERB toppled from power.

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