site.btaFront-Runners in 2021 Bulgarian Parliamentary Elections: Bulgarian Socialist Party

Sofia, March 24 (BTA) - This is the second piece in a series of backgrounders that BTA's Daily News is running ahead of the April 4 general elections in Bulgaria. The series covers eight parties and coalitions which polls show to be certain or likely, to various degrees, to win seats in the next Parliament: VMRO - Bulgarian National Movement; Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) for Bulgaria; Movement for Rights and Freedoms; Democratic Bulgaria; Rise Up! Thugs Out!; Patriotic Coalition - Volya and National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB); GERB-UDF; Ima Takuv Narod [There Is Such a People]. They are arranged according to the number by which they will appear on the ballots.

Bulgarian Socialist Party

History

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is considered a successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), which renamed itself from Communist to Socialist on April 3, 1990 after the name change was approved by some 87 per cent of its members at an all-party referendum.

The BSP governed Bulgaria through six single-party or coalition governments, headed by Andrey Loukanov (February-September 1990 and September-December 1990), Lyuben Berov (December 1992 - October 1994), Zhan Videnov (January 1995 - February 1997), Sergei Stanishev (August 2005 - July 2009), and Plamen Oresharski (May 2013 - August 2014).

The Loukanov, Videnov and Oresharski cabinets were forced to step down by mass street protests before the end of their terms in office.

Three presidential candidates nominated by the BSP have become heads of State: Peter Mladenov (1990), Georgi Parvanov (two terms, 2002-2012), and Rumen Radev (2017-to date).

The BSP has been a member of the Socialist International since 2003 and of the Party of European Socialists (PES) since 2004. The party's former leader Sergei Stanishev has been President of PES since 2011.

Ideology

The BSP's ideological platform is difficult to put in a nutshell.

The BSP is very careful about its association with the BCP. It exploits nostalgia for the socialist past to attract a sizable portion of its electorate, mostly older people who endorse the policy of communist leader Todor Zhivkov. The BSP apparently relies on its electorate's own assessments of the ties between the communist regime and the present-day party evolving naturally, without the party itself exercising rigorous ideological control on the process. The BSP would rather leave it to its faithful to determine how far the party is ideologically connected to its communist past, thus sparing itself the inconvenience of interpreting and explaining this sensitive issue. This helps the party broaden its electoral base. If a BSP supporter believes that it is a successor to the BCP, the party will not deny this by any means. If someone else opts to assume that the party has made a clean break with its communist past and is sufficiently reformed to meet the ideological standards of the modern European Left, they are welcome, as long as they vote BSP.

This strategy has been tangibly successful. Unlike its arch-rival at the dawn of the transition to democracy, the Union of Democratic Forces, from which several smaller right-wing parties have spun off after the Ivan Kostov Government (1997-2001), the BSP has practically managed to keep its presence in Parliament to varying degrees by coalescing with other parties without, however, changing its name again.

The infighting in the BSP, which remains largely off the record, has given rise to sundry left-wing factions over the years, including BSP Left Wing, ABV and Movement 21, which erode the party's record at the ballot box and cut the number of its legislative seats. In September 2020, the BSP parliamentary group faced a rift unprecedented in 30 years, with six Socialist MPs quitting to become independents. Still, the BSP maintains a solid presence as the largest or second largest parliamentary force.

The BSP's pragmatism, however, is damaging to the Bulgarian Left in the long term because its PR strategies, effective as they are, keep confusing and putting off many left-minded people by their ideological incoherence.

Platform, Politics, Positions

The BSP's election platform features staple left-wing catch phrases, calling for stronger State control of and intervention in the economy, economic support mechanisms for the most vulnerable social groups, reforming health care and education to make them more affordable, progressive income taxation, and pro-natalist social policies, among others. Like all opposition forces, the BSP's platform criticizes the powers that be as "mafia oligarchic model". Its rhetoric borrows some overused imagery from the spring and summer 2020 protests against GERB leader and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, such as "bedside-table drawers stuffed with cash" and "running the country from the SUV window". The BSP projects itself as an opposition force and promises to pursue a left-wing policy of "sustained development", which is a stock stratagem in Bulgarian elections.

Support Base Profile

Younger left-oriented people are repelled by the BSP's negative attitude to the Istanbul Convention, gay marriages and refugees. The BSP's political rhetoric and strategy leave out topics and issues that are prominent in the New Left debate which in Bulgaria is confined to narrow student circles. The BSP, however, rather benefits from these gaps in electoral terms, being aware that it cannot afford to lose a sizable portion of its traditional following only to win over a negligible number of alternative-minded young people. The public intellectuals in the BSP orbit focus on geopolitics, natural gas supplies and hybrid wars and stand up for "immutable values", clearly reminiscent of pan-Slavist ideological tenets, which casts them in an extremely conservative light.

The BSP's supporters mostly favour the Zhivkov-era policy of national pragmatism. Anti-Westerners, Russophiles and even pan-Slavists are also attracted to that party. In this sense, the bulk of BSP supporters are mature, conservative people, raised and educated in the late years of socialism, with the nationalist fervour characteristic of that period. In their political conduct, the BSP's hard core are guided by social elitism based on having spent their youth in what they claim was "a better age" unknown to young people, with strong social order, conscription for men, families with not fewer than two children, low crime rates, steady incomes, and access to decent health care and education, among other advantages.

Tactics, Ambitions, Goals

The unheard-of crisis into which the coronavirus pandemic has plunged the world makes taking the reins of government and the responsibility that comes with it a tough proposition for all parties, including the BSP. At this point, only small parties with no cabinet-forming aspirations can afford fussy campaigns, seeking simply to make it to Parliament or win enough votes to qualify for a State subsidy.

The BSP did not join actively the protests against GERB in the spring and summer of 2020. The BSP's supporters were unable to draw a distinction between the left- and right-wing anti-government opposition. Both then and now, early into the election campaign, the BSP is exercising extreme caution. There are two main theories explaining this behaviour. The first theory, spelled out last month by Socialist MEP Elena Yoncheva, is that Borissov and BSP Chair Kornelia Ninova are in collusion. The second theory, propounded by some analysts, is that it is too risky for the BSP to run the country during the COVID crisis and that it would be politically more farsighted to wait for a more opportune time.

Personalities

The BSP leader, Kornelia Ninova, is undoubtedly the most readily recognizable face in the party. Ninova's cadre policy has led to the ouster of many eminent ranking Socialists and a replacement of the Old Guard in the leadership with fresh blood. She has thus incurred a strong internal opposition which, however, proved unable to rally enough support to unseat her, and Ninova won her re-election bid for party chair in 2020. She is known to be in a bitter clash over policies with Sergei Stanishev.

Stanishev is another prominent figure among the Socialists, though he has stood out of domestic politics for some time now and has remained silent during the election campaign. It was him who headed a Socialist government when the party regained power in 2005. It was during his tenure that the Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007. In late 2008 and early 2009, the country was engulfed by mass protests and the BSP lost the parliamentary elections. Stanishev refused to step down as party leader and clung to the post until 2014. He was elected PES President twice, in 2012 and 2015. NV/DD/LG