site.btaOutgoing Deputy PM Zafirov: Coalition Governments Are the New Normal in Bulgaria, as in Europe

Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov called on parties to act responsibly in the national interest and make sensible compromises, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) press service said here on Saturday.

He made the comments at a meeting with members and supporters in Targovishte, and also described GERB leader Boyko Borissov’s claim that the government had leaned too far left because of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) as a compliment.

“Thank you to all of you who are here for your support. I have always felt like first among equals and have never played at being a ‘leader’ of the kind we have seen too much of over the past 30 years. Our biggest task now is to keep the party united, not to disown our achievements, and to acknowledge our mistakes so we never repeat them,” Zafirov said.

He added that, as BSP Chair, he had made every effort to maintain an ongoing dialogue with all party structures. Even so, he described the party’s communications policy as misguided, because many of its actions never reached the public and its role in government remained poorly communicated, the press office said. On internal party matters, he cited steering the party through a financial and organizational crisis and uniting the left-wing political space as key achievements.

Zafirov said taking part in government had been necessary to end the spiral of repeated elections. “I’m not saying it was easy. We took over at an extremely difficult moment for the State. We often had to bang our fists on the table, to keep the so-called Swiss rule, to keep the reactors for the Belene Nuclear Power Plant, and to prevent sending Bulgarian soldiers to Ukraine,” he said.

Zafirov added that, as across Europe, the trend in Bulgaria was that single-party governments could no longer be formed and the country would be governed by coalitions. He also said that even the new political project would not win more than half of all votes cast by Bulgarian voters.

In a television interview earlier on Saturday, BSP – United Left MP Gabriel Valkov said he sees former president Rumen Radev as a partner of the socialists once they enter the National Assembly. "We, the BSP, have elected him president twice. I worked for him during his election campaign," Valkov added.