President, other parties congratulate Mikov on election as BSP leader
President Rossen Plevneliev, as well as the leaders of Bulgaria’s largest parties, have congratulated Mihail Mikov on his election as leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).
Mikov (54), Speaker of the outgoing 42nd National Assembly and a former interior minister in a previous socialist government, won a second-round victory at a special party congress called to choose a successor to long-standing BSP leader Sergei Stanishev, the MEP who quit as BSP leader after the party’s latest electoral defeat.
Plevneliev said in a letter to Mikov that the past months of crisis and instability had squarely faced Bulgarian politicians with an imperative to show unity, to be an example of responsibility and viable solutions.
“That is why I believe that under your leadership the party will help ensure the stability of the political system and deal with the challenges facing our country,” Plevneliev said.
Boiko Borissov, leader of centre-right party GERB, the party formally founded in December 2006 and which has defeated the BSP in every election since then, also congratulated Mikov.
“For Bulgaria, it is important to have a strong left and right so as to have both political debate and a clash of ideas and policies, from which are born the right decisions for the country and the benefit of the Bulgarian people,” Borissov said.
The GERB leader expressed hope that the coming campaign for Bulgaria’s October 5 early parliamentary elections would see scope for competition between political platforms and message, “rather than a discrediting war that repels Bulgarian citizens and leads to low voter turnout”.
Lyutvi Mestan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the ruling axis partner of the BSP and the party that played a catalyst role in calling for early elections after the BSP’s European Parliament election defeat, assured Mikov of a constructive attitude to work on national priorities, to translate reforms in Bulgaria into a high standard of living for citizens and a stable democracy in the country.
(Photo: Mihail Mikov, left, and Sergei Stanishev: mmikov.com)
