site.btaSocialist Leader Ninova Withdraws Resignation

104 POLITICS-BSP-CONGRESS-LEADER

Socialist Leader Ninova
Withdraws
Resignation


June 16 (BTA) - Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova retracted her resignation at the party's 49th Congress on Sunday. The resignation of the socialist leader topped the agenda of the forum. Her decision was received with vigorous ovation. Ninova said: "I am here and I am back."

In the aftermath of the European election loss, Ninova tendered her resignation and the internal opposition in the party urged for changes to the party's statutes. Before the start of the congress local chapters urged Ninova to remain in her post.

In a speech the socialist leader explained her initial decision to withdraw.

Ninova said: "We are at the threshold of a crisis with an unknown end. The reasons for this crisis are many but I am the catalyst. Georgi Gergov called for my resignation after the European elections and thus opened an old wound resulting from the ambitions for power in the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the state."

The socialist leader said that her decision to resign had been considered carefully, that the party's National Council stirred controversies instead of laying out policies and that she decided to step down for the sake of the party's unity.

Ninova said in the wake of her resignation various economic and political lobbies have been trying to install their own party leader.

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A report on the outcome of the European elections stated that the expected protest vote in the country did not materialize in the European elections.

The report was presented by Valeri Zhablyanov, chair of the working group which drew the report.

"We did not manage to transform the European elections into national elections as a vote of no-confidence in the Borissov cabinet," the report reads.

The BSP failed to achieve its primary goal: to win the European elections and trigger early elections. The report concludes that the party failed to rouse voters outside its core which at times was confused by the conflicting messages of the different candidates.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party missed its chance to float its ideas to the Bulgarian public and stayed within the day-to-day debate on corruption and the flaws of the government. The highlight of the campaign undermined trust in the ruling party but on the other hand discouraged peripheral voters.

The campaign failed to take full advantage of the abilities of Party of European Socialists President Sergei Stanishev.

The report took stock of the increased number of votes, the five EP seats won by the party won and the election victories in Montana and Yambol and the regions of Pleven and Dobrich. IG/PP