Stanishev: Two-thirds of Bulgarians voted for change
In his first speech to the new Parliament, Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergei Stanishev derided Boiko Borissov’s GERB party as the “mathematical winner” but not the real winner and said that in the May 12 elections, two-thirds of Bulgarians had voted for change.
It was unclear how much of the vote for GERB was an honest result and how much the result of cheating, said Stanishev, whose socialists placed second in the election.
Stanishev said that the planned Constitutional Court application by GERB to overturn the elections was aimed at destabilisation of the country.
GERB wanted to win not to solve the problems of Bulgaria, but to erase the traces of its sleaze in government, Stanishev said.
There was an urgent need for revival in society, he said. The choice was between a party-state, a political and economic monopoly that inevitably created poverty, which Stanishev said had been the basis for the Borissov government, and the need for change and an urgent revival in society.
Stanishev told GERB that “you live in a different reality in which two worlds have been created, one a virtual world in which everything is all right and everyone praises you, and the real world, in which people are exhausted”.
Bulgaria, the socialist leader said, was “today really holding its breath”.
A huge number of Bulgarian citizens was watching Parliament, exhausted, disillusioned, beyond the edge of despair, filled with mistrust and pent-up anger because of poverty, uncertainty about the future of themselves and their families, feeling that justice and their dignity had been tramped. A test awaited all parliamentary groups, Stanishev said.
“Two thirds of Bulgarians voted for change. You can talk about a victory for common sense and liberty. The victory was not complete, but it gives hope,” Stanishev said.
The economy was in need of urgent rescue.
Parliament had the huge task of restoring the trust of people.
“It will not be easy, but we will not stop working for change, deep, radical, because we need to restore a sense of community in our country,” Stanishev said.
