"BSP fails to overcome the parliamentary barrier - this does not mean that the BSP dies at any cost, that the left-wing political culture in Bulgaria is disappearing. But the BSP now gets the opportunity to work very seriously on itself, so that it can understand what happened and see where and how it can change".
This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by Alexander Simov from the National Council of the BSP.
"Until a year ago, I would not have allowed such a thing at all. Every socialist or every other BSP sympathizer suspected in these elections that it could get to this point. Why it got to this point is a big topic. Countless mistakes and countless political compromises were made, but the realities are as they are," he commented on the show "Before Everyone."
According to him, two factors influenced the left's election result - the party's battle with Rumen Radev and his subsequent entry into the political arena, as well as the BSP's participation in the GERB government with Peevski's massive support.
"Now the price is bitter, very salty, very painful, but sometimes, obviously, in politics you have to go through some kind of bloodbath in order to recover and move forward. The BSP has always paid a much saltier price for its mistakes. Now we see that the bill is very big and very salty".
Alexander Simov believes that this result cannot be blamed on Krum Zarkov:
"There is no way we can point a finger at him and say "Let's get rid of Zarkov" and suddenly the BSP is showered with new electoral love and begins to appear in the sociological surveys as a desirable political force. The problem has never been limited to Krum Zarkov. I believe that he still managed to raise the result with his presence and the campaign he ran, otherwise the BSP would have been at even more nightmarish levels of public approval".
According to him, Zarkov still enjoys the trust and support to offer a path to restoring trust in the BSP.
"At the moment, with such enormous trust accumulated, "Progressive Bulgaria" is obliged to offer a government and I hope that this government will resolve all those painful issues for which Bulgarians expect to receive some answer. For the BSP, this can really be sobering", Simov also commented. In his words, however, "Progressive Bulgaria" does not replace the left:
"The BSP has not lost its chances to return to the political scene and I do not think that in this regard we should fall into some kind of melodramaticism".
"The Bulgarian left-wing political culture is alive, it will survive. The BSP has not died and will not die and has not gone anywhere", he was categorical.