The BSP is meeting at a key plenum, at which the crisis in the party and the future of the leadership will be discussed.
The National Council meeting is expected to outline the party's direction after the recent political turmoil and intra-party tension. The plenum will be held against the backdrop of the resignation of the BSP Executive Bureau, as well as growing calls from party structures and the youth union for party chairman Atanas Zafirov to take political responsibility. At the moment, Zafirov has not submitted his resignation, which further exacerbates internal disputes.
The National Council is expected to discuss the political situation after the BSP's exit from government and the possibility of convening an extraordinary congress. Among the topics will be the election strategy, the relations between the central leadership and local structures and the trust of the left-wing electorate.
Back in December last year, Kaloyan Pargov, deputy chairman of the party and a member of the Executive Bureau in resignation, commented on the current problems facing the socialists:
"There is no party that has emerged from government healthy. The BSP has been in government and in opposition for its 135 years, it has fallen and risen, and has risen again, so this is a process that we are painfully familiar with. We are ready to appear in our current form as a coalition, but this decision will be made by the national authorities. The Bureau submitted this resignation as an act of its collective responsibility. Mr. Zafirov's resignation has not been discussed. This resignation as an act can be made before the congress, because he is responsible for this election. A new Executive Bureau must certainly be elected, which Mr. Zafirov will propose, and the short-term plan of action for the party in the coming months will have to be drawn up."
The only way for deep and real change in the BSP is the honest and frank conversation that must take place at the congress. This is the opinion expressed to the Bulgarian National Radio and Ana Pirinska from the "Socialism 21st Century" platform:
"The BSP entered from a very weak position, allowed itself to be depersonalized, used, and simply serve as a crutch for the powerful in power and the new bosses. A congress is undoubtedly necessary. Now how urgent it is and how immediately it must happen is debatable. Simply by changing a chairman at the moment and talking about some new dreams that we should give to Bulgaria, I read this in a declaration of the City Council, it seems to me that the approach is too naive."