site.btaBreakaways from Socialist Party to Mull Left Alliance, Ninova Invites them to Resume Membership

The leaders of left-wing parties who formed them after breaking away from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will meet at a roundtable discussion mottoed "Left Bulgaria: Ideas, Policies, Unity" in Sofia on Tuesday, the organizers said on Monday.

The participants include Kostadin Paskalev, former President Georgi Parvanov, Rumen Petkov of ABV, Maya Manolova of Rise Up Bulgaria, Tatyana Doncheva of Movement 21, Krassimir Yankov of Bulgarian Progressive Line, Georgi Kadiev of Normal State and Simeon Slavchev of MIR.

The organizers said that the discussion is prompted by the fact that after 33 years of right-wing transition, Bulgaria is Europe's poorest country, bogged down in a social, demographic and health crisis.

Responding to the plans for setting up a new Left alliance, BSP leader Korneliya Ninova told a news briefing here on Monday that she invites all who have left the party and have set up their own parties to resume their membership in the Socialist Party.

"These party chairpersons are all former BSP members. What really matters, though, is the ideas behind which this alliance will happen, the characteristic of the modern new Left is sought in such a format. For the time being, we have not heard about any ideas, and we have not heard about the way it will evolve," Ninova commented.

She specified that these party leaders left the BSP under other leaderships, naming former Socialist Party chairs Sergei Stanishev and Mihail Mikov. "For those who have been recently expelled, they are penalized under the party statute, there is an established procedure and when the penalty period lapses, they are reinstated."

During the last year, Kiril Dobrev was expelled from the party. Kaloyan Pargov, Georgi Tarnovaliiski and others were excluded from the BSP National Council but have been reinstated by the court.