/ world today news/ “The first choice is not to cut off our roots in order to move forward. To defend and develop the course towards a left-wing national policy, to use the state to modernize the economy, to regulate the market and to reduce social polarization. Concrete solutions are needed, but they must be an expression of ideas and policy. Let’s criticize the current government, but seek to change the socio-economic model.”
This is how the party’s deputy chairman Yanaki Stoilov in Veliko Tarnovo formulated the possibilities before the BSP, the BSP reported.
In the Old Capital, the left wing of the Socialist Party held the “BSP – Creation and Resistance” conference. It was attended by the Deputy Chairmen of the National Assembly of the BSP Yanaki Stoilov and Boyko Velikov, the members of the IB of the BSP Donka Mihailova and Stefan Stefanov, as well as prominent Bulgarian intellectuals: Angel Wagenstein, Academician Vasil Sgurev, Prof. Ivan Angelov, Pavel Pisarev , Prof. Iskra Baeva, Petar Volgin, Alexander Simov.
“The BSP is once again faced with a choice – to be a true socialist party, a party of the future, or to remain in the past. Restoring trust requires breaking the gap between stated and real policy, between the demands of political morality and our behavior; is going through a break with all kinds of addictions,” Stoilov also said in front of the full hall.
He also commented on the upcoming 49th Congress of Socialists: “The most important thing today is for the people who go to the Congress to know why they are there and to make their choice. It may be different, but they must know that they are making a choice, they are not part of the momentum, but of the destiny of the party, and it will be what they make it.”
“Congress is loaded with a lot of expectations – to the policy, to the leadership, to the ideas that we will propose. We must meet these expectations, it is our duty for the sake of the national cause, the national policy and for the change of this model of governance,” said BSP Deputy Chairman Boyko Velikov. “The BSP has potential, it has resources and opportunities, as well as young people who take over the local structures. The Congress must give us a new quality of unity on a principled basis. We cannot allow a re-ignition of all that we have faced in the last year such as contradictions, clashes and subservience to corporate interests. Our place in national politics is just like a national party. The Bulgarians gave us this sign on the national holiday. We must respond as a party,” said Velikov. He recalled the discussion organized 18 years ago about the place of the nation-state, which shows its relevance today. “Once again we are faced with the need for a political platform to give us direction and a future as a party; a platform that should not conflict with the policies we pursue. One of our grave weaknesses is that over the years we have diverged between programs and policies that we have pursued. When we prepare programs, they must be realistic enough. We need to propose policies that can change the realities,” urged Velikov.
“They are trying to drag us into a single dispute: who will become the party president after the Congress. They want to take us out of the big policy discussion that we are going to present at this congress. It is the important one, and I am glad that today the issue of politics is in the foreground and politics is discussed both geopolitically and domestically,” explained the deputy chairman of the Socialists during the conference.
The political secretary of the Union of Left Socialists, Petar Nachev, listed the issues before the party in his report. “BSP is first – ideas, second – policies and third – expertise. This sequence is mandatory and its change will depersonalize us and turn us from a party into a non-governmental organization for the absorption of funds from trade in influence,” said Nachev.
According to his words, the upcoming Congress should choose a leadership of the BSP, which will give an unequivocal and categorical request for independence and determination of actions. “The left wing in the BSP believes that the party has a place for people with different social status and views, who can contribute to its rise to a party with a defining role in politics, but only if they accept the socialist ideal and do not risk the party for the sake of their own interests”, said the secretary of the OLS in the BSP.
“We need to rebuild the social base of the party, distinguishing ourselves from the status quo and presenting a clear and understandable platform for the economic and social alternative. For public morality and the role of citizens in governance, in political processes and in the absorption of national wealth,” the report also states. The left wing of the BSP proposes that a national priority in the next few years is to increase the share of state participation in property to 25-30% of the gross national product. “Today we are the country with the least participation of the state in the economy in the entire EU”, stressed Nachev.
“It is necessary for the BSP to present 1-2 realistic priorities in the foreseeable future for the development of the economy. The national interest must be included in the future political platform of the BSP. Don’t promise more than you can deliver,” said Academician Vasil Sgurev. He called on the left to come up with national priorities for the economy in order to get it out of the quagmire it is in.
In a video message to those present, the chairman of the BSP, Mihail Mikov, stated that “despite the storms, despite the attempts to put out the fire, despite the pessimism, despite the betrayals over the years – the idea of the BSP is creation and resistance.” Resistance of the ordinary Bulgarian for a better society, for a different future for us and our children. This idea is also a creation that over the years has left material monuments, that created a society in which people felt much freer, more equal, with more justice.”
Veliko Tarnovo / Bulgaria
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