The political crisis that rocked Sofia for 3 months after the local elections in November of this year seems to have subsided for now, after Tsvetomir Petrov from the PP-DB was elected to temporarily head the Sofia Municipal Council. This compromise, as well as the birth of the assembly in the National Assembly, did not pass without drama, as Petrov received the post with the votes of BSP and Vazrazhdane municipal councilors. This happened despite the fact that the party headquarters of the socialists and nationalists had ordered that no compromises be made with PP-DB and GERB in Sofia – after all, at the national level, they are in opposition to the ruling assembly. The political upheaval also hit the National Assembly – three deputies from “Vazrazhdane” were expelled from the parliamentary group of the party.
Although it started with the vote in the capital’s parliament, the crisis in Kostadin Kostadinov’s party remains unclear for now. In the BSP, which also caught fire around the sudden turn in the Capital Municipality, the internal battle is, however, between age-old and fairly well-defined opposing camps. The ranks of the centenary are perpetually restless; the infighting has especially intensified since Kornelia Ninova entrenched herself at the top of the party and began to mercilessly purge the BSP of its internal opponents. A
the capital party organization remained the largest and most important bastion
of her opponents.
Heavy internal battles started already 5 years ago, when the last European elections were held. It then became clear that the BSP was entering a period of decline under Ninova’s leadership, and the opposition demanded her resignation as party leader. She refused on the pretext that she had to protect the BSP from political and economic lobbies trying to control the party. In the ensuing strife, many who were at odds with the leader were expelled or left on their own.
BSP-Sofia was hit directly – in February 2022 “Positano” 20 removed the leader of the capital’s socialists Kaloyan Pargov from his post. The next drama occurred in February 2023. Then 14 opposition members were expelled from the party, and Ninova’s fiercest opponent – the former member of the BSP leadership Kiril Dobrev, finally lost his party card. At the same time, the social leader entered into a sharp, public conflict with President Rumen Radev. At the time, it was she who brought him into politics and practically led him to “Dondukov” 2. However, the head of state had no desire to stand under her wing – he had not only developed an appetite to rule the country directly, but secretly began to expand his influence in the BSP, and precisely at Ninova’s expense.
Thus, the new rival camps on the left gradually emerged.
The expelled and those who left the BSP grouped themselves in the “Left” coalition.
which gravitated around the presidency and aimed at Nineveh. The BSP-Sofia rallied quickly after the overthrow of Pargov and chose as their leader Ivan Takov, who maintained the line of resistance against Ninova. His people even refused to nominate her as an MP in the metropolitan constituencies for the parliamentary elections in April 2023. Then Takov contemptuously commented that under Ninova’s leadership the BSP had degraded to a “small boutique organization for trading management positions”. This was the assessment of the centenarian’s brief participation in power through the “Petkov” cabinet, in which Ninova herself chose the post of economic minister.
The rift in the party thus created did not close even for the local elections, when the BSP was supposed to be unified and consolidated. The exact opposite happened – the metropolitan organization practically started to hold elections on its own. Takov’s people not only forced “Positano” 20 to accept the trade unionist Vanya Grigorova as a candidate for mayor, but even managed to push through the creation of a local coalition with “Levitsa”, where politicians competing with the BSP and hostile to Ninova had gathered. The social leader endured this with clenched teeth, but during the election campaign he did not support Grigorova at all. The trickery between the two groups continued even after the vote, when “Positano” 20 loudly announced that it supported the position of BSP-Sofia not to hold negotiations with PP-DB and GERB. And at the same time, Ninova and her entourage were aware that the municipal councilors of the BSP (almost all supporters of Takov) were actually secretly discussing the possibility of assembling a governing coalition in Sofia.
Here we come to the key point –
BSP-Sofia supported not only the election of Tsvetomir Petrov, but shared with GERB the committees of the municipal council, where in practice the policies of the capital are forged – finance, transport, ecology, everything. This was done under the pretext that Sofia needs a “working municipal council” – practically the same argument used by the majority of the assembly in the National Assembly. Ninova was waiting from an ambush – from “Positano” 20 instantly announced that the BSP municipal councilors now represent only themselves and threatened them with party punishments. Ninova’s entourage accused the metropolitan organization of “betrayal, pimping and clientelism” (in the words of Rumen Ovcharov). Various smaller party organizations denounced the mayors, others supported them.
Thus the seeds of long-sown discord blossomed wildly. The question remains whether this will lead to another major split in the BSP. So far, that seems pretty likely. Ninova has no sympathy for the leaders of the out-of-control metropolitan organization. And the current situation will provide an ideal opportunity to cleanse and calm her down. In fact, the social leader should in any case hit hard at least on the municipal councilors, among whom is Takov. If he leaves what happened in SOS without consequences, he will be exposed to criticism that he officially rejects the assembly in Sofia, but secretly supports it. The big unknown is how far he can go in the punishments without turning the entire BSP-Sofia against him and causing him to break away from the party.
Because if it happened like that,
“Positano” 20 will take the most damage.
True, Ninova will have a more consolidated party if she gets rid of all her enemies. This could be important in Sofia, where in practice BSP-Sofia has become a separate party that conducts independent politics. Not to mention that at the end of 2024, new elections for the BSP chairman are coming up, and this makes it important for Ninova to establish full control over the centenary. On the other hand, it could mean that the metropolitan organization will burn to the ground. To rebuild it will be a hell of a task, if not impossible.
Moreover, with such a development, President Radev will gain the most. The head of state is already aware that he can hardly remove the firmly entrenched Ninova from Positano 20. To create his own party to lead after the end of his term, he will find it more convenient to use the debris from the BSP itself. This actually represents the entire project with the “Levitsa” coalition, where former breakaways and oppositionists from the BSP are consolidated. The capital’s socialists could also help with another project – for the March 3 movement, which the presidency is launching. This idea has no substance so far. The leaders of BSP-Sofia have shown that they can achieve good results in elections, and this is what Radev needs to assemble a team of promising politicians to work with in the future. This is the possible way for him to restore his greatly weakened political positions.
In the BSP, time is coming separately. The party has experienced severe splits before, which have spawned new political forces. Now, however, its resistance forces are far weaker than in the past after years of violent decline. Like nothing, the party can become a raw material to fuel the president’s ambitions.
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2024-02-21 06:33:49
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