Bulgaria's former President Georgi Parvanov, who completed his second 5-year term on January 22, 2012, has already re-joined his native Socialist Party.

Parvanov was the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (technically the descendant of the Bulgarian Communist Party) between 1997 and 2001, when he quit since he got elected to the Bulgarian Presidency, which paved the way for his successor Sergey Stanishev (Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2005-2009) to take over the Socialist ranks.

Parvanov has rejoined the party by signing up at the local party unit in the Municipality of Kovachevtsi near his native city of Pernik. Parvanov was born in the village of Sirishtnik, which is part of the Kovachevtsi Municipality.

He is said to have received his party papers on Sunday, January 29, without any publicity, the 24 Chasa daily reported Thursday.

Thus, Parvanov has refused the invitation of the BSP unit in the Krasno Selo Quarter in Sofia to return to the Socialist Party as one of their members.

Commentators in Bulgaria expect a leadership struggle in the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the main opposition formation vis-a-vis the ruling center-right party GERB, between Georgi Parvanov and his former protege, Sergey Stanishev.

Both Parvanov and Stanishev are expected to set out on tours around the country, meeting with local BSP units.

Parvanov is further expected to reveal his political plans on February 4, Saturday, at a conference dedicated to the 15th year since February 4, 1997, when, amidst an all-out banking, economic, and moral crisis under the Socialist Cabinet of PM Zhan Videnov, in his capacity as BSP leader Parvanov and then Interior Minister Nikolay Dobrev refused a mandate to form a new government, thus paving the way for early elections, which brought to power the rightist opposition Union of Democratic Forces and a government led by Ivan Kostov.