/ world today news/ All presidents were nominated by the major political parties.
Parvanov shows self-confidence, but Heraclitus said: “You cannot step into the same river twice.”
In the stormy political spring of 2016, a bright left-wing plot emerged most unexpectedly. Almost no one expected, first, that the BSP congress would end with the ousting of the incumbent leader, which had not happened since 1991, and then that ABV would leave power in a flash. The direct dependence between the two events can be disputed, but not their connection. Especially in light of the speed with which the deputy prime minister, the deputy ministers and the regional governor of ABV resigned days before the highest forum of their young party – the national conference empowered to make such important decisions – convened.
The excitement surrounding the BSP congress passed and the party of former president Georgi Parvanov became the focus of attention. Under the slogan “Time to act!” about 800 delegates at the Second National Conference of the ABV quickly, in just a few hours, without arguments and heated discussions, unanimously adopted the resolution “For a new quality of political life, for a new horizon for Bulgaria”, consisting of two points. The first confirmed what had already happened – the exit from power, and the second set the task of seeking the assistance of other “left, centrist and patriotic” forces as quickly as possible for a common candidacy for the presidential elections, which would offer “an alternative to the current model, image and political behavior of the presidential institution”.
I will not belabor the point of whether the “current model” includes only the current president or previous ones as well. Another thing seems more important to me – the belief in the possibility of a small party winning the first post in the state. It was categorically stated by the indisputable leader of ABV Georgi Parvanov with the words: “We may be second in the first round, but we will certainly be first in the second round!” Surprises are always possible, but I still want to remind you that in the democratic history of Bulgaria there has never been a case of a presidential candidate coming second in the first round, and then coming out first in the second – Zhelyu Zhelev in 1992, Petar Stoyanov in 1996, Parvanov himself in 2001 and 2006, as well as Plevneliev in 2011 led in the first round, and in the second only confirmed or extended their lead.
Not to mention that all previous presidents were nominated by the major political parties, and the support of the smaller ones was necessary, but not sufficient in itself. It is no coincidence that DPS, which is said to be unable to elect a president without its support, has never put forward its own successful candidacy, but has always supported the future winner in the second round. And so until 2011, when this model ended.
ABV’s enthusiasm for the upcoming presidential elections goes through the proposal to create a new coalition, motivated by the statement: “We have created the image of a stable partner” of ABV’s PG deputy chairwoman Mariana Todorova. It is only curious that it comes right after ABV unilaterally left the previous coalition.
And something else makes an impression. Immediately after leaving power, ABV announced a course to return to it. And not only in the presidential institution, but as can be seen from the words of the second most important figure in the party, Ivaylo Kalfin, in power in general. This is the only way to understand the statement of yesterday’s Deputy Prime Minister: “ABV’s goal is to be a lasting and, I hope, significant factor in politics, which means to be present in all government bodies.”
The clearly stated goal – power: first the presidential, but also any other, cannot help but cause a comparison with the BSP congress, held a week earlier. It is true that one was a congress and the other a conference, but perhaps it is precisely because of this difference that one of the decisions of the ABV is to change the name of its highest forum and henceforth call it a congress. This is not a desire to return to the mother party, but rather a desire to increase the prestige of ABV.
The differences between the two top forums of the most significant left parties far outweigh the similarities. They derive from their condition. The BSP is the largest opposition party, but has been effectively out of power since 2009 (despite Oresharski’s short-lived but rather crisis-ridden government). The hunger for power causes great tension among the apparatus and party cadres, which we saw well at the BSP congress. At the time, the disputes were formally about the search for the left-wing opposition face of the party, but in fact they were fought between financial interest groups. Therefore, in the center was the dispute for the post of chairman, for which there were many candidates, but around two main positions – that the BSP should fight for leftist values or for important state positions. The deplorable results of the BSP’s activities in the last two years have shown that the first cannot happen without the second, and there is every chance that the coming months will prove that the second cannot happen without the first. In any case, no one paid much attention to the proposed documents with a clearly left-wing profile, which, unlike previous congresses, were adopted quickly and without discussion. In the BSP, the congress did not decide, but only raised questions to which the new leadership has yet to find an answer.
The situation in ABV is completely different – as a carrier of pure pragmatism, this party took advantage of the handing out of the cards after the 2014 elections and came to power with a small but well-placed cadre. Proximity to power (until yesterday and in the future) gave a much more organized character to the conference, where time was also devoted to the greetings of all political guests regardless of the weight of their parties.
The two forums had almost the same number of delegates, but the BSP held its one in the largest hall of the NDK, with a huge number of unofficial guests, without an official presidium and for two days, while ABV held it in a small hall, with a well-arranged presidium, within a few hours, with many official guests, among whom Yordan Tsonev did not fail to recall the role of DPS in the presidential elections.
At ABV, no one talks about theory, but only about when and how to nominate the presidential candidates. The question is so important, perhaps, because in the small cadre party ABV there are at least two who have already participated in the competition for this post, one of whom has succeeded twice, and the other was only 165 thousand votes short of making it. This undoubtedly gives confidence. But even in ancient times, Heraclitus said: “You cannot step into the same river twice.”
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