Governing GERB party with victory at local and presidential polls

Bulgaria’s presidency will be an active and dynamic one. That was what future president of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev from the governing GERB party promised. He won convincingly the second round of the elections, while his opponent Ivaylo Kalfin lost. Preliminary data showed a victory of 5 percent for Mr. Plevneliev, who was elected predominantly with the votes of city people, people with university and high school education and a serious part of the young Bulgarians.

Rosen Plevneliev is the forth president that comes into power via democratic elections in this country. He will replace current President Georgi Parvanov in the beginning of 2012. Mr. Plevneliev used to be one of the most successful ministers in the cabinet of PM Borissov. In the night after the elections he promised a modern presidential institution with clear engagement for progressive European development of this county.

“Bulgaria will have an active presidency. Bulgaria will have a dynamic presidency,” Mr. Plevneliev promised. “The doors of the presidency will be open from the very first day for civic institutions and regions and thus we will be able to create the direction for Bulgaria’s future development. We want the presidency to become a striker, regarding this country’s national priorities. The Bulgarian presidency promises to be politically detached, dynamic and result-oriented. We promised to work for the consolidation of this country around its priorities – regional development, economy and better business environment. Reforms will be implemented in the agenda of the presidency yet from the first day. The reform of the judiciary system will be our main focus, along with the ones of the retirement and healthcare systems and the administration too. A working administration will guarantee a much more effective economy. The e-government is among our priorities too. The foreign policy will be based on our national interest and the energy sector is a part of it. This means energy effectiveness, independence and liberalization for electricity markets. The Bulgarian presidency will work 24/7 to improve the success of both our citizens abroad and all Bulgarians, no matter their location. We expect many young people to enter the presidential institution. We will support the efforts of the foreign ministry on the subject with our ambassadors that had cooperated to the communist State Security. This will be one of the first things that we will do.”

Mr. Ivaylo Kalfin, who lost the race, will continue his work as an MEP. “There are many challenges there. I will participate in extremely important processes at the EP, including the negotiation of the funding up to 2020,” Mr. Kalfin said after the elections. He congratulated the winners – Rosen Plevneliev and Margarita Popova and wished them the following:

“As a Bulgarian citizen that respects the institutions of this country I do hope that they both will be really good president and vice-president over the next 5 years. They have things to catch up with. Mr. Plevneliev is the president, elected with the fewest votes over the past 22 years of democratic transition. I really wish him the best and I hope that the pair will show via its work that it can be the unifier and leader of the nation that knows where this country is headed to. We all need that. The society will control really hard the work of the president and the vice-president and I will cooperate for the effectiveness and transparency of this control. We heard a lot of promises and we will look for their realization.”

The ruling political party GERB and the Bulgarian Socialist Party were the principal contestants in the run-off of the local elections, too. The former consolidated their status of primary political force in this country, winning the mayoral seats in Bulgaria’s biggest cities. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov expressed his gratitude to the Bulgarians for the enormous trust they had given to his political formation in the elections for members of the European Parliament and the general elections in 2009, and in the current presidential and mayoral voting.

“Now that Europe, and the entire world, is in turmoil because of the economic crisis, we scored a serious result,” Borissov pointed out. “I could not find enough words to express my gratitude to the people who managed to envisage the repercussions of a possible political crisis. If we had lost, that would mean early elections, which may translate as well in months of careless negligence and lack of responsibility. I give you my word that we are going to treat the trust you have given us with the respect it requires.”

According to the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Sergei Stanishev, the votes his party had swept in the presidential and local elections were impressive, and worthy of respect. He defined the election result of the candidate pair Kalfin-Danailov a “breakthrough” his party had made in the wake of the general elections in 2009, when many voices were heard that the end of the party was approaching. The support of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms contributed to the very good performance of the socialists in the run-off, and Stanishev pointed to exit polls, which claimed that they had added some 200-250 000 votes in their favour.

“1.5 million Bulgarians voted for us in the run-off,” the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party said. “I wish to express my gratitude for their credit and assure them the battle is not over yet. The Bulgarian socialists will from now on be champions of the free Bulgarian citizens. Our party attracted the votes of many people outside its hard-core electorate. We shall continue pursuing the consistent policy we’ve been following in the past couple of years in opposition to the ruling party, its absolute power, arrogance, social division and anti-social policy. The elections changed dramatically Bulgaria’s political landscape. Sociologists claim there are only two parties left in this country – GERB and the Bulgarian Socialist Party. We managed to achieve our goal of two years ago – to become the acknowledged opposition of the ruling party.”

Sergei Stanishev made accusations of rigged elections and warned that his party would not leave matters unattended. However, earlier in the day GERB declared officially that the elections had been fair and democratic. Borissov even pointed as evidence the fact that they had lost the mayoral seats, where their incumbent mayors had proven weak.

Radio Bulgaria asked sociologist Kuncho Stoychev whether the concentration of power into a single political party represented a certain danger?

“There is a great risk, indeed, because no super power leads to anything good. This huge responsibility requires also a great deal of tolerance and caution. The ruling party has yet to prove whether they are capable of doing so. I would rather doubt that. I believe we shall witness yet another abuse of power, because we have already been given enough clues prior to their absorbing all powers within the state.”

Here is Kuncho Stoychev’s recapitulation of the elections.

“The big loser is the true rightist opposition in Bulgaria. They gave a very poor performance and came up with a weak candidate. 2% is a ridiculous election result for a candidate president. Overall, their candidate got 6-8% of the votes, but nevertheless this is a very disappointing performance. These elections opened a huge gap in the centre of the political spectrum. Probably the half a million people who voted for Meglena Kuneva could fill in. But the big question is whether they would find their representation in the shape of a new political movement or party, which would run in the next general elections on its own ticket.”

Radio Bulgaria interviewed also political analyst Ognyan Minchev.

“Obviously GERB have demonstrated a new side to Bulgaria’s political practice over the past 20 years. In 4 years they managed to sweep a third major victory, which is unprecedented. This makes me think that the success cannot be explained only with Boyko Borissov’s charisma. I do not adhere to the chorus of disapproval that GERB are bound to introduce dictatorship. Dictatorship is out of the question in Europe. What is likely is that the political haggling might invade the party from within. I consider it a positive outcome that the post-communist oligarchy represented by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms lost the elections. But I wonder if they would dare to regain some of their lost positions by lobbying inside the ruling party, but it is too early to say.”

English version by Zhivko Stanchev, Radostin Zhelev

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Governing GERB party with victory at local and presidential polls

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