Bulgaria Socialist Leader: President's Demands Coincide with Ours

Bulgaria Socialist Party (BSP) leader Sergey Stanishev has reacted to the President's public remarks, saying that Georgi Parvanov's views coincided 90% with those of the Socialists and the Coalition for Bulgaria.

Stanishev said that President Parvanov's views on the present government's policies and performance were almost completely in accord with what his own party and the Coalition for Bulgaria had been saying for months.

The opposition leader has commented on Friday's press conference initiated by the President to give his public reaction to the current conflict between him and the ruling GERB government, and to comment on their anti-crisis policies.

According to Stanishev, the conflict between the state institutions had entirely generated by the government and the ruling majority and could lead to political crisis.

"The government should take a step back," he stated. "I believe the prime minister understands it, but if he does not - that's too bad for him," Stanishev added.

He added that he did not see how, under these circumstances, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov could remain in position.

Stanishev reiterated that the crisis in Bulgaria was worsening, that it had become a social crisis, and that full responsibility for this rested with the present government.

"The government's anti-crisis plan has not led to any practical results, and the necessary measures are not being applied," Stanishev added.

He asked rhetorically what the Cabinet's policy with respect to the EU "Strategy 2020" was, and what was Bulgaria's position as a member state; he concluded that no such policy had been presented in any substance by the current government.