Emergency meeting of We Continue the Change party’s national council leaves matters largely in limbo

Former finance minister Assen Vassilev remains the sole leader of the We Continue the Change party after the resignation of Kiril Petkov as co-leader, and a new party leadership will be elected at the end of September, Vassilev said after an emergency meeting of the party’s national council on June 29.

Petkov, who headed the short-lived government in which Vassilev served, said on June 25 that he was stepping down as WCC co-leader and as a member of Parliament, which he said was his way of taking personal responsibility for deployment of people now at the centre of allegations of alleged illicit behaviour.

The national council saw no further resignations from the party’s leadership.

Vassilev, speaking publicly for the first time since Petkov said that he was resigning: “The change continues, and the rumours about the collapse of We Continue the Change are greatly exaggerated”.

According to Vassilev, since June 23, there had been 68 applications to resign from the party, but also there had been 40 applications to join it.

“There are 6000 members of the party who regularly pay membership fees,” he said.

Petkov briefed the national council meeting on the reasons for his resignation.

Party executive council member Lena Borislavova, who was Petkov’s chief of staff when he was prime minister, denied allegations that Petkov had lobbied to get her husband appointed as Sofia deputy mayor.

Vassilev said that everyone in the party is free to choose the team they work with.