site.btaAhead of Meeting: Socialists Divided on Convening BSP Congress to Elect New Leadership

The National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) held a meeting on Saturday. It was scheduled last month when the BSP Executive Bureau resigned following the December 11 resignation of the coalition government the BSP was part of. Approached by journalists on their way to the meeting, BSP members differed in their answers on whether a party congress should be convened and whether a new leadership should be elected before the snap parliamentary elections.

Back in December, BSP Chair Atanas Zafirov did not resign, arguing that being elected by the party congress, he should ask again the congress to endorse his resignation. On January 9, he commented that holding the congress in a hurry would scatter the forces of the Left, and that all major decisions must be made after the early parliamentary elections. 

On Saturday, BSP youth organization head Gabriel Valkov told journalists that the National Council meeting would convene a BSP congress. He said the meeting would adopt the party's political platform for the upcoming parliamentary elections and analyse the BSP's participation in the outgoing government. "The most important thing is to change the BSP leadership, because the Left needs a new path with new representatives, who I believe with the new platform will be able to return the BSP to the first rows in Parliament," Valkov commented. In his words, the party is currently united and heading together toward a unifying congress.

Socialist MP Ivan Petkov told journalists that if the BSP does not change its leadership, the party will not be able to face the public that brought down the coalition government. He hopes a congress will be held within two to three weeks to elect a new chair, new Executive Bureau and, possibly, a new National Council, because a new leader cannot work with the current Council. According to him, the new BSP leader should not have been involved in the current ruling coalition in any way. "This means that he should not have been in talks with GERB and [MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan] Peevski," the Socialist MP explained.

Kaloyan Pargov, Deputy Chair and member of the outgoing Executive Bureau, commented that convening a congress now risks plunging the party into internal strife, which is characteristic of the BSP. "This is my greatest fear based on my 20 years of party experience and what I have seen," he added. "The congress does not mean taking responsibility, but rather another higher forum in which a broader group can discuss many of the things we will hear today [Saturday] in this hall," Pargov noted. Asked if the party's leadership should be changed, he said: "The issue of leaders resigning is a personal decision for each individual. Some have done it quickly, others have tried until they saw that it was no longer possible, but resignation is usually submitted after the public's assessment of unsuccessful elections. This is the most common reason for changing a leader."

Borislav Gutsanov, outgoing Executive Bureau member, said it is reasonable to convene a congress as it reflects the collective thinking of the party. "I am a team player and I have demonstrated this on more than one occasion, and I believe that it is appropriate for matters to be discussed within the party's bodies. In my opinion, convening a congress is the correct decision," he told journalists. When asked whether he himself would run for BSP chairman, Gutsanov replied: "Let's first see what the plenary session decides. I am a supporter of collective measures and decisions."