Bulgarian Socialists Vow to Oust Borisov Govt Despite Lacking Cohesion

Politics » DOMESTIC | July 3, 2010, Saturday // 20:04
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Socialists Vow to Oust Borisov Govt Despite Lacking Cohesion Sergey Stanishev, BSP leader, has warned that any failures of the government will not automatically turn into votes for the opposition. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Socialist Party has declared bringing down the Borisov government its top priority during a party plenum that barely got sufficient attendance.

The forum of the National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party was held about a year after the Socialists lost the general elections with 18% to 40& for the GERB party.

In his opening speech, the BSP leader and former PM Sergey Stanishev outlined several possible scenarios for bringing deep changes in the party.

Later during the plenum he pointed out that winning the presidential and the local elections in 2011 and terminating the rule of the government of Boyko Borisov should be the major priorities for the Socialist Party.

Stanishev did warn, however, that any failures of the Cabinet did not transfer automatically into trust for the opposition Socialists because of the chance that some populist leader or formation would benefit from disillusioned voters.

The plenum of the Socialist Party where he made these statements, however, suffered a tangible lack of attendance with only 92 of the 181 members of the party's National Council showing up before noon. The party forum had to terminate its work in the after as only 56 senior party activist were left in the hall with at least 91 needed to adopt decisions.

Some have suspected sabotage of the plenum on part of the two strong figures in the party, Rumen Ovcharov and Rumen Petkov, both former ministers in the Stanishev Cabinet who resigned after after scandals in 2007-2008. Others have attributed the low attendance to the summer season and the World Cup quarter final between Germany and Argentina.

Despite the small number of senior Socialists, the party still voiced strong criticism about the polices of the ruling center-right GERB party and the Borisov government.

MP Korneliya Ninova has estimated that Bulgaria's budget deficit will be 7%-8% at the end of 2010 instead of the 4,8% projected by the revised budget law of Finance Minister Simeon Djankov.

She has reiterated previously known criticism that the current government was nibbling at the budget left by the Stanishev government, while failing to collect revenues and increasing spending at the same time.

The Socialists insist on a 3% increase of retirement pensions, and claim that the Cabinet could collect BGN 800 M more by increasing VAT and excise tax revenues.

Former Interior Minister Rumen Petkov (2005-2008) said the planned 20% reduction of the money for the State National Security Agency DANS will lead to the layoff of some 300 agents who might have to join murky structures to make a living. He designated these cuts as an “unprecedented purge”.

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Tags: Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, Sergey Stanishev, Rumen Ovcharov, Rumen Petkov, Korneliya Ninova, Boyko Borisov, GERB, budget deficit, DANS

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