site.btaBSP Holds National Council Meeting in Sofia on Sunday

November 17 (BTA) - A meeting of the Bulgarian Socialist
Party (BSP) National Council is being held in Sofia on Sunday.

BSP Deputy Chairman Kiril Dobrev, head of the BSP election 
headquarters, has conducted an analysis and evaluation of the
past local elections, the BSP press center reported. According
to the report, more than 650,000 Bulgarian citizens voted for
the mayors of the BSP for Bulgaria coalition, which is almost
100,000 more than in 2015. The BSP won the first round of
elections in 35 municipalities, ran in a second round in 57
municipalities, winning 24 of them, including 4 district cities
(Blagoevgrad, Pernik, Razgrad and Rousse), according to the
report.

For the first time since 1995, the tendency of the BSP getting
lower results in each local elections has come to an end. This
is stated in one of the conclusions of the report presented by
Dobrev on Sunday. "If the BSP at the beginning of the transition
 [to democracy in 1990] was a party that won over villages and
small municipalities, today the BSP's entry into local
government is through large municipalities and district centres,
 where people's dependence is not as significant and they have
more freedom in their voting choice," stressed Dobrev.

In his report, Dobrev also noted that a positive trend has been
observed in the last three years that concerns young people and
their desire to identify with the left.

Before the start of the session, the internal opposition again
called for a resignation of the BSP leadership. BSP-Varna
Chairman Borislav Gutsanov said the City Organization in Varna
strongly demands the resignation of party leader Kornelia Ninova
 and that of Kiril Dobrev. "In Varna, we could have a much
better result than what was achieved at the moment," Gutsanov
said. "The overall representation of the BSP in this election
provides prerequisites for a change in party leadership if we
want to present ourselves in another way in the upcoming
parliamentary elections," said Gutsanov.

On Friday, a letter signed by 50 socialists was circulated, with
 an alternative analysis of the election results and a demand
for the resignation of BSP leadership.

* * *

Party of European Socialists President, Sergei Stanishev,
commented before the National Council meeting that resignations
were not the most important thing. "The most important thing is
to see if there is a desire for analyzing mistakes and for a
change that will expand confidence in the BSP and win the next
elections," he said. "The big question before us is why for
three consecutive years in three different elections (national,
European and local), provided we see that the GERB party is
eroding, Bulgarians do not recognize the BSP as a better
alternative," continued Stanishev. RY/DT


/DT/