Bulgaria’s Embattled Socialist Leader to Face Confidence Vote

Politics » DOMESTIC | June 18, 2013, Tuesday // 16:07
Bulgaria: Bulgaria’s Embattled Socialist Leader to Face Confidence Vote Members of the Socialist party have launched a sign-up in a bid to topple their leader Sergey Stanishev (R) following the surprise appointment of a controversial new head of the national security agency. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgaria’s Socialist leader has urged his party to hold a confidence vote and decide his future amid a flood of calls to resign.

Members of the Socialist party have launched a sign-up in a bid to topple their leader following the surprise appointment of a controversial new head of the national security agency.

They claim Delyan Peevski’s nomination and election discredit gravely their formation and may even spell its death and want the head of their leader on a platter.

Stanishev however has so far ruled out quitting his post over the furor that the election of controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski for new security chief triggered.

Now he says he is ready to face a confidence vote by the party's national council.

“My resignation will not make our party or the government stronger, on the contrary. I am ready to face a vote of confidence by the national council of the party. Many people don’t trust me any more, I am ready to tell the whole truth,” Stanishev said at a press conference on Tuesday.

According to Stanishev it would be irresponsible to resign at the current point because it would fulfill the dream scenario of former Prime Minister and leader of center-right party GERB, Boyko Borisov, and former Interior Minister and Deputy GERB Chair, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, of GERB coming back to power.

Stanishev claimed that a resignation of the Chair of BSP would cause a crisis within the party and would not help stabilize the government of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski but would have precisely the opposite effect.

He defined the nomination and appointment of Peevski as DANS Chair as a serious political mistake and an important lesson for BSP.

Meanwhile, the press office of the socialist party announced that a number of district units of BSP across the country had expressed their support for Stanishev and the government headed by Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.

Peevski's appointment triggered an outburst of the public discontent, causing Bulgarians in a number of cities to take to the streets for three days in a row, calling for the resignation of the socialist-led government headed by Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.

According to sources close to the matter, as cited by local media, Delyan Peevski was nominated by Stanishev and he imposed the candidate despite the reservations of Oresharski.

Oresharski lent credibility to the allegations by admitting in a Monday interview for bTV that Peevski's nomination had been discussed at a meeting with Stanishev and Lyutvi Mestan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS).

Bulgaria's Prime Minister, however, refused to specify who of the three had come up with Peevski's nomination.

The Sofia city unit of BSP is chaired by Anna Yaneva, who was appointed Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy by Oresharski on Thursday.

Yaneva is believed to be one of the closest allies of Rumen Ovcharov, former Economy and Energy Minister, whose deputy she was during the term in office of the three-way coalition government.

However, the motion calling for Stanishev's resignation is said to have been initiated by other BSP members.

On Sunday, the BSP unit in Sofia's Vitosha residential district also demanded that the leader of the party step down.

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Tags: party, leader, Socialist, Rumen Ovcharov, ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Delyan Peevski, DANS, State Agency for National Security, resignation, Sergei Stanishev, Bulgarian Socialist Party, Bulgaria

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