Former Prime Minister and BSP leader Sergey Stanishev sharply criticized the leadership and the state of the party after the protests and the resignation of the cabinet “Zhelyazkov“ and warned that “the knife is resting on the bone“.
In an interview for the program “This Saturday and Sunday“ on bTV he stressed that the crisis in the BSP is deep and that the party faces a real danger of remaining outside parliament.
The reason for the conversation was the resignations of the close party leadership, submitted “as a sign of assumed responsibility“, as well as the fact that the chairman of the BSP Atanas Zafirov has not announced his intention to resign. According to Stanishev, the problem is not personal, but systemic: “The question is not who will resign, but whether the BSP will show a new spirit, a new atmosphere and an independent political line“.
Stanishev recalled that more than a year ago he warned that the BSP should not enter into a government with GERB, “There is such a people“ and “DPS - A New Beginning“. According to him, the party has lost its political face and looked like a “affiliated organization“, without clear conditions and recognizable policies.
“The ministers tried, but the general impression is that the BSP was in power at all costs, without its own face“, he said.
The former leader of the Socialists warned that a possible political project by President Rumen Radev could seriously affect the BSP. In his words, such a project could “suck out“ a significant part of the left-wing electorate if the party does not change radically.
Stanishev also warned of the danger of the party not entering parliament at all.
He was categorical that the internal party struggles for positions do not give any energy and repel society. He criticized the atmosphere of the last congress, which he described as a “slaughterhouse of lobbies, bargaining and ugly trade“.
“There is no savior. No one person will pull the BSP out of this swamp alone“, he emphasized and ruled out the possibility of him running for chairman again.
According to him, today's meeting of the BSP National Council is a chance for the party to show that it has understood the message of the protests and is ready for real change – not formal, but substantive.