site.btaBulgarian Socialist Party Leader Kornelia Ninova Resigns

Sofia, November 16 (BTA) - Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova is resigning in the wake of the November 14 elections, after which her party slipped from third to the fourth place in Parliament. She announced her resignation in a statement to journalists after a meeting of the party's Executive Bureau on Tuesday, during which BSP's election results were assessed as "a disaster". "I take all responsibility," said Ninova.

According to inconclusive results from the Sunday vote for Parliament, BSP for Bulgaria gained 10.35 per cent of the votes which is around 3 percentage points less than what they gained at the July 11 snap elections.

According to Ninova, older voters found machine voting challenging and the COVID crisis was a concern as well. "There are also subjective reasons [for the bad results]. It was all my fault, and the fault was that I kept silent when I should have been speaking and telling the truth," said the Socialist leader. Dwelling further, she spoke of intraparty strife.

She said she was surprised to hear the nomination committee of President Rumen Radev and the caretaker government demand her resignation through government spokesman Anton Koutev, who did it publicly rather than at a party plenum. Koutev is a high-ranking Socialist party member.

According to Ninova, during the campaign the intraparty opposition worked for Continue the Change, which took 10 to 15 per cent from the BSP votes.

Continue the Change is the clear winner in the November 14 general elections with a comfortable lead on the formerly ruling GERB party. In the presidential vote, which was held simultaneously, the current Socialist-backed President Rumen Radev leads by a lot on his key rival, GERB-backed independent Anastas Gerdjikov, but will have to go to runoffs because the voter turnout was too low for a clear victory.

Ninova said now the party has two pressing tasks: to participate in the formation of a new government and elect a new leader. The Executive Bureau has called a meeting of the National Council this coming Saturday to ask for a mandate to participate in talks on the formation of a government and to schedule a congress, possibly in early January, said Ninova. She will ask the congress to endorse her resignation.

Until then, she remains party leader.

"By then and especially in the next two weeks, we will have serious and responsible talks on the formation of a government and leading the country out of the crises," said Ninova.

The Socialist leader said she got a call from Continue the Change leaders Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev and received an invitation to government talks, which she accepted. "We are currently discussing how we will meet."

Ninova said that Bulgaria needs a working government and Parliament because there are pressing decisions that need to be made to allow the country to address the multiple crises.

Ninova's opponents within her own party, however, argue that after withdrawing she should not be the one representing BSP in the government talks. Among them are high-profile member of the European Parliament Elena Yoncheva and the Socialism 21st Century Platform within the party. They called on Ninova to come down with immediate effect and allow the party leadership to designate a person to represent the Socialists in the talks and stand for the long-term interests of BSP.

The Socialism 21st Century Platform calls for holding a congress within a month. YV/LN/