Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
Can a new leader revive the BSP, which has fallen into programmatic and ideological weakness? This question sounds like a plot for a comedy fantasy, since the party has long since lost its reasons for existence.
Nevertheless, at the party forum yesterday, the BSP decided to convene a congress on February 7-8 to elect a new chairman. The current one - Atanas Zafirov - has clung to the post and has no intention of resigning, and does not rule out re-election after almost a year of chairmanship. Quite possible, if the party technologists select the loyal delegates. Party life in the socialist party has long revolved around technology, intrigue and manipulation.
The convenient coalition partner
Over the 25 years of this century, the BSP has changed four leaders and after each one it has fallen more and more, and the results of elections have progressively decreased. Voters and society have long ceased to recognize the party as an active participant in public life, but as a formation that exists for itself and for "Positano" 20. The BSP has lost touch with the real problems of society and, although it technically continues to function, it has no mission and does not offer meaningful solutions.
The party and the movements with which it unites have been shoved as gaskets in governing coalitions - either with the PP-DB or with GERB-SDS in recent years. The besepari have been accustomed to the MRF and Peevski since the time of the "triple coalition" and the one-year rule of the "Oresharski" cabinet. Such unprincipledness is easy to justify with some (historical) moment, and there are many such in this century - EU membership, the eurozone, the need for stability after frequent early elections, and so on.
After the meeting of the National Council, Zafirov announced that he would not resign, as "it would be a betrayal of the people who voted for me". But some of the BSP voters consider the alliance with GERB to be a betrayal, and this is evident in the dissatisfaction of local organizations.
It was precisely the emergence of GERB that pushed the BSP out of the political scene and since then there has been no regression. And Russian interests, traditionally associated with the left-wing party, have also shifted to the new strong players, leaving the BSP on the periphery - although they have become more active for the presidential elections.
Yotova's candidacy as an attempt at revival?
The upcoming presidential elections are also a chance for the BSP, as long as it manages to consolidate broader support for the candidacy of current Vice President Iliana Yotova, if she actually runs. Given the crisis in the party, it is hard to believe that the Socialists will manage to mobilize the necessary resources beyond the narrow party core, with figures with high public ratings. Unless President Rumen Radev supports her campaign, leaving office early to participate in the parliamentary elections.
A similar position has already been expressed by the Deputy Chairman of the BSP Kaloyan Pargov, who in September last year told Nova TV: "Just as the BSP supported Radev eight years ago, we expect it to stand behind Iliyana Yotova if she decides to run". Unlike Radev, Yotova is closely linked to the BSP and the party's weaknesses will directly affect her campaign.
She does not have the buffer of "supra-party" popularity that Radev enjoys, and it is difficult for her to break away from the image of a party in disintegration, even if her candidacy is nominated by an initiative committee. Therefore, for the BSP, the presidential elections are a chance to check whether it is still capable of generating trust outside its own electoral perimeter, which is constantly shrinking.
But there is also a serious obstacle here - "Dondukov" 2 is positioned as a corrective to the "Borisov-Peevski" model, and although for a year the BSP was part of this model. It will be difficult to reconcile these two circumstances, unless the congress changes the BSP leadership and the participation in the government is assessed as a mistake despite Zafirov's praise from yesterday.
"Economic Majority" criticizes
However, the criticism from the leadership of the largest BSP organization is false. The leader of the BSP city council in Sofia, Ivan Takov, stated that the left is in a political dead end, with unresolved organizational issues and a highly wavering party asset and risks completely losing face if it goes to the elections in this state.
Criticizing the top party leadership, Takov seems to forget that Vanya Grigorova reached the runoff for the mayoral post in Sofia in 2023 not only thanks to the efforts of the party organization, but also to her profile as an authentically left-wing and non-partisan candidate. The BSP itself registered a decrease in its municipal councilors in the Sofia Municipal Council (SOC) from 15 in the local elections in 2019 to nine in the last one, which is already 8 after Grigorova's departure.
And in the SOC, of which Takov is a part, the BSP councilors, together with those of GERB-SDF and "There is such a people", represent the so-called "economic majority", which imposes its will on key issues. This was also the case in May last year, when the financial framework for public transport in Sofia for 2025 and the increase in salaries by 300 leva were approved. This was also the case with the change of management of municipal companies, also with the voting on the reshaped budget of the capital, etc.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party is too burdened by past mistakes and new mistakes and another leader from the old party retinue will not restart it. The left is outside "Positano" 20.