site.btaBSP National Council Member Gutsanov: Election Push Hinges on Next Two Plenums

BSP National Council member and BSP MP Borislav Gutsanov said on Saturday that the party’s early-election performance will largely hinge on decisions taken at this and at the next plenum, speaking ahead of a National Council meeting at BSP headquarters in Sofia.

Gutsanov said unity was paramount. He added that it was important for BSP to preserve its internal diversity rather than follow a single line of conduct, arguing that this “colourfulness” was one of the reasons the party has remained a leading political force in Bulgaria for more than 130 years.

BSP MP Atanas Atanasov said the National Council was set to elect a new leadership that would continue the change demanded by the party congress. He said there should be new people, adding that renewal goes hand in hand with new faces. Atanasov described BSP Chair Krum Zarkov’s first steps as excellent and said the party should continue in that direction.

BSP MP Gabriel Valkov said he expected a routine and calm meeting at which the party would elect its new leadership and the heads of its candidate lists, noting that most list leaders had already been chosen, as far as he knew. Valkov said he had accepted an invitation to join the Executive Bureau, but that it remained to be seen whether the plenary would support such a decision. He added that once a chair is elected, the party gives them a free hand to work and show what they can do, and that criticism begins if the chair starts to go off course.

Former environment minister and BSP MP Manol Genov said he expected changes in the Executive Bureau and possibly new lists, adding that he did not anticipate a serious renewal but that the outcome would become clear. He said he had emphatically refused to head a candidate list. Genov said the chair had indicated that ministers and deputy ministers should not head lists and that this was a gesture whose correctness would be judged by the election results. He added that BSP had reason to be concerned about the election and that if the party fails to enter the next Parliament, the leadership usually bears responsibility.

BSP official Valeri Zhablyanov said the change in the party had begun and that the plenum should continue it.