Bulgarian Socialists to Promote Ex FinMin for PM

The left-wing, opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, is making plans to nominate for Prime Minister, the former Finance Minister from the Three-Way Coalition Cabinet, Plamen Oresharski.

Bulgarian Standard daily writes Monday the plan will be put in motion in case the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, does not receive enough ballots to form a majority government after the 2013 general election.

The leader of BSP and former Prime Minister in the same Coalition Cabinet, Sergey Stanishev, had declined heading the country once again over his commitments as President of the Party of European Socialists, PES, and some serious opposition against him inside party ranks.

Stanishev, reportedly, feared he would not have enough backing to form a Coalition cabinet and the other major opposition formation, the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, will push to have as PM the former President and former Socialist leader, Georgi Parvanov, as a condition to be part of a possible Coalition government.

Oresharski is a former member of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces, UDF, and a Deputy Finance Minister in the right-wing Cabinet of PM, Ivan Kostov. He was later elected Member of the Parliament on the ballot of the left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria, led by BSP. Despite frequent political metamorphoses, he does not have many enemies, and is considered a compromise by the left and the right.