site.bta48th Socialists' Congress Begins, Stanishev Begs Pardon for Mistakes

Sofia, July 27 (BTA) - The leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Sergei Stanishev, begged pardon for his mistakes in an emotional speech before some 750 delegates to the party's 48th congress. The forum began here on Sunday under the motto "Strong BSP for Social Bulgaria!" "If I have made mistakes, please, forgive me. I have not meant ill. On the contrary, I personally took over the most fierce battle with [Boyko] Borissov and GERB for the sake of normality and values, for the idea of justice."

The official guests of the congress include outgoing Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, cabinet ministers and partners from Coalition for Bulgaria. The forum is supposed to elect a new BSP Chairperson and to adopt the political documents for the participation of BSP in the early parliamentary elections in the autumn.

Nine candidates will run for the position of a BSP leader: incumbent Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev, National Assembly Chairman Mihail Mikov, BSP Deputy Chairman Yanaki Stoilov, National Assembly Deputy Chair Maya Manolova, MP Kornelia Ninova, MP Georgi Kadiev, Georgi Gergov, Krassimir Yankov and Krassimir Premyanov. 

The remaining 20 nominees withdrew from the race.

The future leader will be elected in a secret vote. 754 delegates are expected to vote with ballot papers in screened booths.

The congress started 20 minutes later due to security checks.

"This is my last congress as BSP leader," Stanishev said. He noted that the forum would not have taken place, if he had not convened it. "I stand before you with self-confidence and belief in what we have achieved together and what lies ahead. Today, is my day of analysis-making. I am firmly resolved to withdraw from the position of chairperson. I changed a lot but, at the same time, I could not change many other things," he continued.

"Many people do not trust us today. One of the reasons for this is the nomination of Delyan Peevski as chief of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), which triggered the protests," Stanishev said further in his report. "I cannot allow that my party would sustain negative attitudes due to my errors and this is why I step aside." He explained, however, that his withdrawal does not imply running away.

He outlined a pessimist long-term perspective for the country, if GERB win the elections in the autumn: reinstatement of the police state, freezing of incomes, no Christmas bonuses for pensioners, an increase of electricity prices and freezing of energy projects.
 
Stanishev urged for unity of Socialists as the single counter-action taking into account that the party has not yet overcome the internal capsulation. Stanishev stressed that the creation of ABV of former president Georgi Purvanov has confused the electorate at the European Parliament elections. This formation is a competitor [of the Socialist Party] at the upcoming elections as well. However, he said that they should stretch a hand to ABV to oppose GERB.   
   
"I plan to run for leader of the Party of the European Socialists and I hope that my party would be the first to nominate and support me," said he. According to Stanishev, no sufficient advantage has been taken from the fact that a Bulgarian has been holding such a high position at European level.

Regarding the future of Coalition for Bulgaria, Stanishev said that it needs to be reconsidered and opened to the civil society. "If I get a mandate from you and from the National Council, I am ready to invest a much more considerable part of my experience and knowledge in its performance to achieve a maximum result at the elections, said Stanishev, who is also Chair of the Political Council of Coalition for Bulgaria.
       
After the end of Stanishev's speech the work of the congress continued behind closed doors.

According to local observers, the BSP congress is being convened at a difficult time for this  formation - after the resignation of a cabinet, whose governance  with the socialist mandate took place against the backdrop of  nearly one-year protests, and after a conflict with coalition  partner Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). The congress is  also offset by strong criticism against BSP and PES leader  Sergei Stanishev and a nosedive of the socialists' public  rating.

According to a nationally representative poll by Exacta, taken  among 1,000 respondents between July 10 and 15, the main rival -  GERB party - would get 26 per cent of votes in the early  general elections this autumn, leaving the BSP behind with 15  per cent and the MRF with 7 per cent. On the backdrop of the  negative attitudes to most state institutions and their leaders  the most dramatic decline of approval is seen for outgoing  Socialist leader Sergei Stanishev who has lost 7 per cent since  april and now has 17 per cent of approval. He has lost the  support of about a third of the core voters of BSP.

Exacta commented that the name of Stanishev's successor at the helm of the party will be vital for preserving the core electorate of BSP.

On Saturday outgoing Defence Minister Angel Naydenov, who is  also the BSP Spokesman, made the following comment about the  congress on Sunday: "We are in for a serious test on which we  set high hopes. I hope that the party will come out of this test  with much more energy, power and ambition, as well as with more  capacity. We can come out stronger by choosing a new leader  capable of waging battles and of winning them. We can also come  out disunited an weak, but I do not want to think in this  direction."

"No party until now has fallen as low as the BSP. The government  did not achieve success in any sphere. There is a total decline  in the economic, social, financial and political sphere in the  country," GERB Chairman Boyko Borissov told journalists in the  Black Sea town of Tsarevo Saturday.
  
 By August 8 the BSP National Council should decide who will head  the lists and the number of positions for the coalition  partners and the civil quota, a party plenum held on Friday  decided, adopting requirements and mechanisms for nominating  candidates for members of Parliament. The document also has to  be endorsed at the congress on Sunday.
 
Friday's resolution, which will probably develop into a  pre-election platform, lists what Oresharski's government with  the BSP mandate has achieved, although it also admits that the  state has remained a hostage to corporative interests and the  actions of influential political and economic groups caused  quakes in the banking system.

Relations with the MRF have to be revised in order to stop the  use of power for economic benefit, Friday's resolution says  further. GERB remains the party's main political opponent  because it expressed right-wing and authoritarian policy and  covert dependence. Taking a question whether government with the  MRF is possible again, a top BSP figure said that at this stage  this is absolutely impossible to happen.

The Socialists, however, underscored their decisive role in  preventing a bank collapse in Bulgaria. They also admit that  they have failed with reindustrialization and have not ensured  better access and higher quality in health care and education.

Two days before the congress Georgi Kadiev, who is one of the   candidates for the BSP leader's position and who is considered  a "dissenter" in the party, told Nova TV that anyone who claims  the BSP will win in the forthcoming parliamentary elections is  lying. "The BSP has to be cleansed. The only thing I can promise  is a lot of work, a lot of sweat, a strong opposition," said  Kadiev, who left Parliament after the loss of the elections for  European Parliament. "This is still not the end of the BSP but  the party is in an extremely grave crisis, no doubt about that,"  the former MP thinks. An outspoken critic of outgoing BSP  Chairman Sergei Stanishev, Kadiev last month left Parliament,  where he was part of Coalition for Bulgaria, and resigned from  the Socialists' policy-making National Council, of which he had  been member since 2005.

In his opinion, the change in the left party depends on whether the status quo will win.

"I know that I am an alternative. I am not part of Stanishev's  circle, I have not taken part in its decisions, I wasn't even  present when they were being taken," Kadiev said. He was one of  the four BSP MPs who did not vote for the election of  controversial businessman Delyan Peevski MP of the MRF as head  of SANS.

In the opinion of Kadiev, Peevski's nomination as head of SANS last year was one of the crucial moments for the BSP, although he also thinks it has ideological problems.

"The BSP is one of the parties which did not reform truly after 1989. Communists, socialists and social democrats continue to coexist in it. The same is true in respect to the Russia-Ukraine conflict," Kadiev said.