„Thank you for the support I received from you at the Congress. I want to assure you that I have not backed down an inch from what I promised you then“. This was stated by the Chairman of the National Assembly of the BSP and BSP – OL Atanas Zafirov at a meeting with members and sympathizers of the left in Haskovo. He recalled that one of the commitments made was to make every effort to save the party. „We were in a very difficult situation – organizationally, financially with huge debts of millions. There was a risk of losing all our property, which was mortgaged to banks due to huge loans, debts to the National Revenue Agency and other institutions. Our television had gone bankrupt.
Our newspaper had gone bankrupt. We were in complete international isolation in the east and in the west, in complete internal political isolation. No one saw the BSP as a partner and did not want to work with us. We had practically quarreled with everyone“, explained the BSP chairman. Last but not least, he pointed out the party's persistence in being in perpetual opposition, which led it to become the fifth political force and to the loss of nearly a million voters.
„In the past year, the BSP has shown self-confidence that it can govern, to send cadres for the most important positions in the state – Speaker of the National Assembly, Deputy Prime Minister, key ministers, chairmen of parliamentary committees, members of regulatory bodies“, he explained.
According to him, a lot has been achieved in the government: nearly five billion have been saved under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, the incomes of many citizens have been increased, projects have been launched in the country's infrastructure, including the “Struma” highway, which had been delayed for years. “All this in no more than 10 months, not for an entire government mandate. Of these hundred points with which we came out in the last parliamentary elections – we have fulfilled 36, and as a party with 19 members of parliament. These are the facts“, he was categorical.
Atanas Zafirov emphasized that all decisions that have been taken to participate in this government are collective decisions – confirmed once by the National Council and a second time by the Party Congress. "I'm not saying that the decisions were easy, I'm not saying that there wasn't another opinion in the party. I have heard and continue to hear all these opinions very well. But the opinion for participation in the joint government prevailed," the chairman of the left coalition specified. According to him, the goals behind this decision were twofold.
„The first was statesmanlike, to save our country from the endless spiral of elections, from the cataclysms in the economy, the deplorable state of the municipalities and the lack of budgets, the endless uncertainty in society, from the complete apathy and despondency that led to an increasingly complete demotivation to vote“, he also said.
According to him, the second goal was to save the party, because the meaning of every party is participation in the governance of the country, in order to realize its political ideas and fulfill the commitments made to the voters.
The Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party Kaloyan Pargov stated that the left has three paths ahead of it. „The first is for everyone to cope with this situation on their own, as they can. The second is to go to Congress with the awareness that we will further divide ourselves, right before the elections, and worsen the situation we are in. The third is to realize the political capital we have - the history of the BSP, the left-wing coalition we have, and the unity around Iliana Yotova, who is about to head the presidential institution. Only united can we overcome the seemingly insurmountable obstacles we face," he added.