Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader and former Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev, was the only party head to speak at the inaugural meeting of the new parliamentary season.

Stanishev talked about the goals and accomplishments of the BSP so far, underlining the difficult social circumstances in which the party began its work after the elections in June 2013.

"We found Bulgarians bent on their knees, and people whose lives were dominated by misery and poverty," Stanishev said. "BSP earned people's trust not because we are the smartest, but because we took up the responsibility to bring Bulgaria back to its people," Stanishev added.

The party leader assessed the performance of the party in its first 6 months of work as efficient and conducive to results. Stanishev referred to the social reforms alleviating public policies for children, mothers and pensioners, and also mentioned the establishment of reinforced trust between the public sector and private businesses.

However, the more anticipated statement was that of the Parliament's largest party, the formerly-ruling and now in opposition center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB). The leader, Boyko Borisov, refused to take the stand and left the room. Borisov's reaction was defined as "an act of cowardice and failure to take the responsibility as the largest party" by the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament from BSP, Maya Manolova.

The only member of GERB to speak was the party's Vice Chair, Tsetska Tsacheva. She said that GERB's priorities could not serve as the opposition's platform for its next term.

After Borisov's refusal to speak, Speaker of the Parliament, Mihail Mihov, also from BSP, asked all cameras of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and microphones from the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) to be turned off, so that the MPs can proceed to discussions about proposed bills.

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