Bulgarian Socialist Party leader resigns

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от БНТ

14:25, 11.06.2024

The leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Kornelia Ninova, is resigning, she announced at a briefing after the release of the final results of the "2 in 1" elections on June 11. The party's national council has to decide whether to accept it, and the BSP congress is the body that elects a new leader.

"I assess our results as disastrous. Therefore, I take political responsibility and resign, and convene the National Council. One of the deputy chairmen should finish the term," Ninova said.

Before that, the BSP leader thanked those who voted for the party on Sunday.

"I want to start by thanking everyone who supported us. It was a nice, lively campaign with many meetings with the people. The biggest worry for Bulgaria is the bottom of the voter turnout, this is a punishment for all of us in the political system. There is no winner in this election because we are all losing votes. Mostly "We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria", they lost over 300,000 votes. Although GERB had won, they would hardly have the claim to govern with the confidence of less than a tenth of Bulgarian voters. This fragmentation means instability. There is no big party anymore. There are many small parties. We have seen a complete failure of sociology. Not a single prediction has come true. There is nothing serious on the left except the BSP," Ninova said.

"Only BSP did not enter into assemblages and deals," she was adamant.

"We do not support a GERB government. We believe that Bulgaria can be pulled out of the crisis only with a non-partisan, expert, time-bound and programmatic government. One of the tasks of the National Council is to prepare a position that will be presented on the rostrum, but we will not back down from this position - we will not do a party assemblage with a GERB government," Ninova further said.

Election results based on 100% tally sheets processed: GERB-UDF wins Bulgaria's snap parliamentary elections, MRF comes second

Asked whether the country will enter a spiral of new and new elections, Kornelia Ninova said:

"There is such a danger and we urge not to allow it. New elections in the autumn will be with even lower turnout, even lower legitimacy, fragmentation. This is dangerous for the democratic process in Bulgaria."

Asked by BNT whether the hatchet should be buried and the left-wing parties united, she replied:

"We are not fighting a war. We sent an invitation to everyone to come. We have not called on anyone to take their pills, we have not called anyone 'old canes'. Ask those who talk like that."

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Yesterday, June 10, the youth organisation of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) called on BSP leader Kornelia Ninova to resign. They put up banners at the party’s headquarters in Sofia, demanding change. Another poster read "resign".

At a meeting of the BSP’s youth organisation it was decided to demand the resignation of Kornelia Ninova and to convene the National Council of the BSP, which would convene a Congress to vote on Ninova’s resignation and the election of a new leader. Gabriel Valkov, chairman of the youth organisation, said the election results were a disaster, after the party had collapsed from 900,000 votes in 2017 to just over 140,000 votes (7.12%) from the June 9, 2024 elections.