site.btaSocialist Party Leadership Gives Vote of Confidence to Its Chairperson

Socialist Party Leadership Gives
Vote of Confidence to Its
Chairperson


Sofia, March 31 (BTA) - In an unanymous vote, the National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), vowed its confidence in its leader Kornelia Ninova Friday. The party press office said that the confidence vote was 118-0 with no abstentions, "to continue the policy for changes in BSP and Bulgaria". Also, the National Council assessed in positive terms the party's performance in the March 26 early general elections and identified some mistakes in the campaign.

The BSP leadership also decided that if GERB invited them to talks on the formation of a government, they will attend and will say that they are not going to participate in a coalition government due to platform differences.

The National Council set up a working group to prepare proposals for priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU in 2018.

In her remarks at the start of the plenum Kornelia Ninova asked a vote of confidence from the National Council after BSP failed to win the most votes in the March 26 general elections.

Even though it was tipped by some polls as the likely winner in the elections, especially considering the recent overwhelming victory in the presidential elections, BSP won the second largest number of votes last Sunday. In multiple comments, Ninova said that even that was a success as the party nearly doubled its electorate from the previous general elections, won mandates in areas where it used to have none, emerged the leading force in seven district centres and broadened its support among young people.

On Friday, Ninova said that the responsibility for the party's performance in the elections was all hers. "If I get your confidence, we will continue to fight together for these 1 million Bulgarians and for Bulgaria, which we need to change," she told the National Council.

Ninova said that BSP's messages were not wrong but it was a mistake that BSP allowed to have them misinterpreted and to see the party presented as anti-European when the reality is that it played a major role for Bulgaria's entry in the EU.

The BSP leader argued that the position in favour of scrapping the EU sanctions against Russia is not anti-European because a number of other European politicians and government leaders hold similar positions. "We don't criticize the EU. We are criticizing the European Right wing which brought things here. Our struggle from now on will be for a strong and united EU, and for a worthy place in it for Bulgaria," said Ninova.

She slammed attempts to portray BSP as an anti-democratic party after her notorious remark that "democracy took a lot from us".

What Ninova actually said was: "Democracy took a lot from us: health care, education, security. But it gave us the freedom to think, to have an opinion and to fight for our rights." Some media reports stopped before the second sentence and analysts and political opponents grabbed an opportunity to lash out at the BSP leader.

"Ironically, it was probably the strongest call for democracy," she said.

Ninova dismissed claims that BSP is not longer a Left party and have lost the Left vote. "The Left idea for scrapping the flat tax and the interpretations that we heard from our opponents - that BSP was planning to raise taxes - scared away many people," she commented.

She said that the Socialists should consider carefully the tax policy as a package: family-based taxation, VAT, flat tax, etc.

The Socialist leader said the recent elections showcased many vicious practices, including vote trade, corporate voting and administrative pressure. PK/LN///