/ world today news/ Today’s conference, initiated by the BSP-Sofia City Council, is dedicated to 126 years since the establishment of the Sofia party organization and 150 years since the birth of Georgi Kirkov.
By holding this forum, we begin the discussion of problems that are fundamentally important both for our national development, and more specifically for the Bulgarian Socialist Party, for the national left movement. Our ambition is for the results of our talks and discussions to become an actual policy of the BSP and the other left-wing parties and formations, which corresponds to the realities of today and the prospects of Bulgaria’s development.
It is no secret that in the left space there are a number of disagreements and contradictions related to the history, present and future of the left movement in our country. In new conditions and in a new context, we face the eternally relevant questions: What to do? How to react to modern processes? How to change the unfortunate Bulgarian fate? How, stepping on reality, can we pull the state out of that bottomless abyss towards which we have been pushing it continuously for the past 28 years?
We are worried, and this is logical, by a number of unfavorable processes that have been developing in the Bulgarian left since yesterday. They relate to the contemporary substantive aspects of the leftist idea, as well as to its functioning now and in the future. They refer to the consequences of the BSP’s participation in Bulgaria’s transition from socialism to capitalism. To the left’s ability to respond to geopolitical changes and challenges. Until our maturity, let us continue or reject the policy of compromise between the interests of modern Bulgarian capital and the interests of the people of wage labor. To our strength to preserve originality and organicity, but also to conduct a profitable and meaningful coalition policy, to combine our strategic goals with tactical tasks.
We are obliged, in my opinion, to analyze the decline of our electoral support! Why is it that from a party that until the mid-1990s had the trust of two and a half million Bulgarians, today we are satisfied with the support of less than a million voters? Needless to say, what is our attitude to power in the conditions of postmodern bourgeois development? What steps should we take to attract young people and people of active age to the BSP, but also to the other left-wing formations? The dilemma is also relevant: is the BSP turning from a mass and parliamentary party into a parliamentary party?
The questions are not one or two. They suggest a new type of work at the theoretical and practical level. One form of left space activation is meetings like today’s. We think it is appropriate if we first start by exchanging views on the left and the leftfor their role in our modern reality. That is why the theme of the present conference bears the title: “The Left: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”.
We intend, in the next year 2018, to continue the work of our forum systematically and with more concreteness. As the closest during discussions, let’s discuss: left-wing politics and local government (in connection with the municipal elections in 2019, with an emphasis on those in the capital). And also: the geopolitical aspects of left-wing politics; is the BSP changing as a mass and parliamentary party; the coalition policy of the BSP; left-wing politics and economics; left-wing politics and culture; left politics – science and education; projects and proposals for the concretization of sector policies – the basis of a refined management program of the BSP, etc. We will do our best to publish the information and materials from our discussions in independent collections, in the daily and periodical press, in our party publications.
I believe that the conference “The Left: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” will take place in a polemical but tolerant atmosphere, that we will set an example of democracy and tolerance, of constructive efforts. I thank everyone for their empathy and willingness to search together for the right path on which Bulgaria will move forward. Because today here, in addition to the members and sympathizers of the BSP, representatives of other left and patriotic parties, left movements, non-party, representatives of creative unions and non-governmental organizations are present in this hall.
Once again, on behalf of BSP-Sofia, allow me to thank you all and wish success and creative spirit at the conference!
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* Introductory speech by Kaloyan Pargov – Chairman of the General Assembly of BSP-Sofia at the conference “The Left: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, held on December 16, 2017.
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