The 48th Congress of the Bulgarian Socialist Party has supported Sergey Stanishev, who withdrew from the leader’s position of the party, to run for a new term in office as head of the Party of European Socialists (PES). On Sunday, BSP voted Stanishev would be its nominee for PES chair in the elections that will be held in 2015. Stanishev has asked for support in a speech that was over an hour long during his last congress as head of the BSP.

The European rise of Sergey Stanishev began in his first years as leader of the BSP. None of the red party functionaries of that time expected Stanishev would stay for 13 years at the top of the party. A BSP member becoming a member of PES also seemed improbable at the time. But it happened. Observers see Stanishev’s success as an exceptional international recognition for BSP. Others tend to look at his work as focused on his personal career. But the fact that a Bulgarian became president of PES is the most significant event in the recent history of the century-old party.

"Over the past three years I have had the unique opportunity, along with the leadership of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, to head the family of European social democrats," Stanishev said.

"To tell the truth, neither the BSP nor Bulgaria utilized the fact that a Bulgarian was at the highest election position in European political life, he said. I worked in order for BSP to reap maximum political dividends. This has not happened yet."

In his last address to the delegates of the congress Sergey Stanishev announced the election of a new party chair came at his request.
"I wanted BSP to have a new leader, because I cannot let the party suffer from my mistakes. I am not running away and I believe that people in Bulgaria can forgive. If I made mistakes, forgive me,” he said.

In his speech Stanishev mentioned the name of MRF MP Delian Peevski only once. The appointment of Peevski as head of the State Agency for National Security triggered mass anti-government protests.

"I know that many people do not trust us today because of the mistakes we made last year. And because of the incident with Peevski. I have repeatedly answered the question who offered Peevski to head SANS and why. I am not running away from personal responsibility."

Sergey Stanishev expressed his regrets he could not fulfill his dream to see the BSP a ruling party without the need to form coalitions. He said that unlike MRF and GERB, BSP did not have the habit of abusing power.

It is not only BSP that has to pay the price of political agreements in the name of national priorities and interests," he continued.

"BSP has proven to be a trustworthy partner in government and respects the legitimate interests of its partners,” Stanishev said. “In the past year we saw that the MRF are strong partners in the political battles that we have jointly led. But respect for the views and interests must be mutual."

Stanishev decided to resign after pressure from internal opposition, which became especially fierce after his decision to become MEP in Brussels, despite repeated promises that would not happen. The Former Prime Minister and current MEP decided step off after 13 years as BSP leader and 10 election losses.

There were 8 candidates who wanted to take Stanishev’s position. Current National Assembly President Mihail Mikov was elected the new president of BSP after a second run against Minister of Economy and Energy Dragomir Stoynev. The news of the election was not welcomed enthusiastically by the delegates. Some of them previously threatened to cast invalid votes as a protest against the aims to preserve the status quo in the face of the Mihov or Stoynev. Mikov is said to have close ties with the party leadership, while Stanishev seemed to be in favor of Stoinev becoming his successor.

In his first speech the party chairman-elect Mikov promised decent results for the 120^th anniversary of the party, which will be marked during the upcoming early elections.

"It is not so important who won the leadership elections. The important thing is the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which is the biggest in Bulgaria and it will be the strongest. BSP is a party that has been changing. It is important that these changes bring success to Bulgaria.”

English: Alexander Markov