„The Executive Bureau is elected by the National Council at the proposal of the Chairman. This is his team. Since Georgi Parvanov's time as Chairman, the team principle has been introduced in the Statute - to give the Chairman the right to choose his team, the team he relies on to lead the organization“. This was commented on „This Morning“ on bTV by Kaloyan Pargov - the Deputy Chairman of the BSP in resignation.
„And the resignation of the Executive Bureau is submitted by the Chairman to the National Council. Of course, two options were discussed at this meeting. The first option - the Chairman resigns - the Bureau, his team remains. The second option - the Bureau resigns, the chairman remains, because he was elected by Congress and his resignation and responsibility are borne before Congress, which will happen on February 7,“, he stated.
“Always before elections, instead of preparing for elections, we think about internal party battles“, Pargov noted.
According to him, Atanas Zafirov must assess for himself how he will go to the upcoming Congress. There will be a point on which it will be decided whether to terminate his mandate early.
According to him, the responsibility for participation in the government will be borne in the early elections and by the result that is expected, and he admitted that there is an electoral decline.
Climbing on the backs
“I believe that this government has gone too far. They went too far with this climbing on the backs, including of the BSP, instead of decisions being made by the Joint Management Council and announced there. And not competing. In this regard, the BSP was the most tolerant and most normal party in a coalition format - the way a party should behave. Unlike the other partners. Including the supporting one, including the mandate holder“, commented Kaloyan Pargov.
When asked how much influence Delyan Peevski had on the party, he replied:
„The only thing we were dependent on was our great desire to show that the BSP is a necessary party, that the BSP can influence political decisions and can impose part of its program on the agenda of the government and parliament. Which happened at 36%, considering that out of 100 points in the election program, 36 have already been started and some of them have already been decided“.
“One of the compromises we made was with the eurozone. Because ITN and GERB insisted on the eurozone. We insisted on the topic of Ukraine, on the topic of reactors. You know that we have stopped and changed quite a few decisions“, noted Pargov.
He stated that he was not bothered by the photo of Atanas Zafirov entering Delyan Peevski's office, but he was worried that Zafirov did not give an explanation to the public in time.
Pargov told Kaloyan himself that “he set the condition for Borisov, Peevski, and Toshko Yordanov that if a way was not found in the second budget - for what was in the first, as a social package, to remain, we must leave, because there is no point in staying in this government“. And an hour later after the conversation, Peevski said that he wanted the social package to remain.
He also said that before New Year's, he held a meeting with representatives of the Gen Z generation and asked them why they did not raise posters against the BSP, and they replied: “This is not against you, my grandmother is from your party“.
When asked if President Rumen Radev came up with his own political project - whether he would eventually be a partner of the BSP, with whom they would enter into joint government, or a competitor who would erode the party, Kaloyan Pargov replied:
“Rumen Radev is the president when the BSP imposed itself since 2016. In 2016, the BSP discovered him, developed him, and did his entire campaign. In 2021, he was at the heart of his Initiative Committee, since that was the formula the second time as well“, Pargov pointed out and added “A partner for sure, because this is our president. There is no way we can deny him“.
“If he has a formation, we will have points of contact. It is normal that we do not always agree. This does not mean that we are at odds and that we do not talk to each other“, the resigned BSP deputy chairman also noted.
According to him, the BSP wants quick elections to untie the political knot and see what the perspective is. He also pointed out that everyone will return the president's mandate, as well as that there must be changes to the Electoral Code.