/ world today news/ The ABV leader has more history than future, but he is still playing in the big game. Whether he will stay, however, depends not on him, but on other politicians
A rooster crows every morning in the Bulgarian political henhouse. Look for others. On March 26, he said he would initiate a leadership meeting with Boyko Borisov. After another six days, he recalled that his ABV party was the leader and everyone should have been aware of that. “There are two leaders in the BSP”, he announced earlier and addressed his former party. “Borisov behaves in an authoritarian manner, solves problems single-handedly and chaotically. That way we will not understand each other,” Borisov said again at some point. You guessed it – Georgi Parvanov.
All this testosterone gushes against the background of another epic plot – the resignation that Parvanov submitted to a party forum (National Council), which by statute cannot accept resignations; as well as
the request that he will apply again
at the national conference on April 25 (here, if he wants, he can actually submit it). It is April, we are waiting for the meeting with Borisov, as Parvanov said that the leadership event in question will take place in April. It can be predicted that if it happens, it will be before April 25th. Borisov should make some commitments and the conference should become Yalta – Parvanov solemnly presents the spheres of influence of ABV to the delegates.
However, there is one problem. If you are Boyko, tell me for what reason you will meet with Georgi Parvanov? Is there an occasion? ABV MPs vote with the majority and are not some kind of internal opposition, but on the contrary – complement each other with their colleagues. The regional governors and the deputy ministers of the ABV firmly exercise their power, the Deputy Prime Minister Kalfin, according to Borisov himself, is excellent – he works for the man. What would your meeting with Parvanov be about? It would be just to do him a favor.
There is also another problem. The BSP may have two leaders, but it does not participate in the government. The opposition is GERB, the right-wing nationalist coalition, and it is not Mikov who is raising the retirement age. Kalfin does it. The BSP is undertaking a correct policy in view of the local elections – it is struggling to put the government’s negatives on the mayors and municipal councils of GERB, it is building ABV in the “Strike Row”. However, Parvanov is wrong. He is waging a battle with GERB and Borisov, which, even if we assume that he is sincere, is personal. ABV does not fight with GERB and Borisov. Or the party has a second leader (like BSP),
or we see extreme schizophrenia –
an entire party rules, and its leader is the opposition to it and the government. In view of the local vote, ABV will bear both the liabilities of a governing power and the unprecedented in political theory and practice position of its chairman.
However, there is a third problem – a basic one. Parvanov was the only one of a whole generation of politicians to retire. Ahmed Dogan, Ivan Kostov, Petar Stoyanov passed. Some formally, but still took a step back. Even his successor Sergey Stanishev, much younger and with a different role, is no longer the leader of the BSP. Only Georgi Parvanov remained on the scene from the generation that drew and led Bulgaria through the transition. Every politician has a biological clock.
Parvanov has much more history than future
And the present owes (m) some 15 hundredths, thanks to which ABV entered the parliament. Without them, even if there was ABV with leader Parvanov, their importance would be as much as that party of which ex-president Zhelev was the leader, but no one remembered its name.
Parvanov is right to claim that ABV is a leadership formation. But compare it with other such – GERB, DSB of Kostov, DPS of Dogan. They were either in opposition together with their leader, or ruling, the leader himself did not let go of the levers of influence on his party. And now Parvanov is not even a deputy. In that sense
his leadership is an experiment akin to that of a king
since 2005 – 2009 Saxe-Coburg-Gothic also remained out of power. But the NDSV had a much more decisive weight in the triple coalition, the parliament was not so fragmented, it was needed by the BSP and DPS. The NDSV had no interest in arguing with its leader, yet a section stopped listening to him and left. In this sense, the risks facing Parvanov are much greater – he threatens that ABV will leave the coalition, but if it does, the former Barek MPs will immediately take over the baton. And deputies, ministers, deputy ministers and regional governors of ABV do not want to get out of power. In this sense, a small coalition ruling party, in a motley parliament, where the chairman is out of control and without managerial leverage over his subordinate party asset, automatically assumes that at some point he will become redundant for it – another problem undermining the future.
Parvanov is undoubtedly a smart man. It certainly feels all this – unnecessary, aging, increasingly unnoticeable. But he doesn’t feel like leaving the game either. “I feel like living, well! I feel like living!”, the decrepit comrade Mitashki jumped after the lovely Reni (“Orchestra without a name”). “Boyko, let’s get to know each other!”, “Hey, BSP, take a look at her!”, Parvanov also jumps up, wanting to play in the big game, as he did a while ago.
On April 25, he can gracefully resign, gracefully be re-nominated, then even more gracefully leave. But he can continue with his little games.
#Comrade #Parvanov #Comrade #Mitashki
