Sergey Stanishev's alternatives are people like former Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, and Hungary's Victor Orban.

The statement was made by the Chairman of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, at the opening of the meeting of the Council of the Party of European Socialists, PES, which is held in Bulgaria.

The entire PES leadership is in the capital Sofia at a time their Bulgarian leader, Sergey Stanishev, is facing growing discontent from his own country people and the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, which he leads as well.

Bulgarian citizens are staging mass protest rallies for the 8th day in a row. They were sparked by the outrageous decision of the government and the Parliament to appoint controversial media mogul and lawmaker Delyan Peevski as Chair of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) with Stanishev seen as one of the masterminds behind the plan.

Demonstrators are demanding the resignation of the government of Prime Minister, Plamen Oresharski, elected on the mandate of the Socialist Party.

Swoboda says Bulgarians must understand that opposing the Socialists and Stanishev would be detrimental to democracy.

"Over all these years, Sergey Stanishev proved he is fighting for the better future. He did everything possible to modernize his party and help it break away from its Communist past. He has a clear goal – to boast social democracy in Bulgaria," Swoboda told the delegates.

He stressed that people in many countries have realized they should not turn back to the philosophy of leaders such as Borisov, Berlusconi, and Orban.

According to Swoboda, the Socialists are the only reformed party that could bring positive changes across Europe.

"The success of the Cabinet Oresharski will be PES' success as well. In Bulgaria Socialists won the elections, not as convincingly as we wished, but it is still a victory. The previous government (of Borisov's center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB – editor's note) had connections with shady individuals and it was about time to topple it. I know that Stanishev wants his country to successfully fight corruption and crime. We support the Cabinet Oresharski; it is a different one," he pointed out.

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