Mihail Mihalev was re-elected chair of the BSP in Veliko Tarnovo

Mihail Mihalev won a new four-year term at the head of the BSP Municipal Council in Veliko Tarnovo. He was elected in the first round during the 21st reporting and electoral conference of the socialists, which lasted almost 10 hours. In the secret ballot the 38-year-old journalist received 75 votes, while his opponents Krasin Karakotsev and Dimitar Cholakov received 15 and 4 votes respectively.

Mihalev also presented a four-year programme for stabilising the party organisation, which includes drawing up an economic development plan for the municipality to serve as a future election platform at the local elections. The re-elected chair set as tasks the restoration of party organisations, regular meetings with the party activists, still greater openness to the media and holding surgeries with citizens.

Over Mihail Mihalev’s past four-year term, 6 basic party organisations were restored in various settlements and 3 new ones were created. Over the past 3 years the organisation’s membership has been growing. The work of the Dimitar Blagoev, Nikola Gabrovski Discussion Club was restored, and the first party school outside the capital for training young staff was created. For the first time the BSP in Veliko Tarnovo acquired its own website and electronic newsletter, and an MEP’s office was opened. Mihalev’s platform for the next 4 years also includes creating a television studio.

„If you will allow me, I will now speak briefly in the first person singular. I achieved a personal victory over these 4 years. I think those who know me will guess it. That victory is that in 4 years the rich in the party never came to love me. Nor did the rich in politics come to love me. I was not loved by those with high-turnover establishments, with factories, by those who build huge blocks of flats. They did not come to love me because I do not profess their ideology and I am deeply convinced that the ideology of the BSP equals tolerance, respect, brotherhood, equality, social justice and a readiness to help“, Mihail Mihalev shared from the rostrum.

During the session a chair of the Municipal Control Commission was also elected. The delegates’ confidence was won by Pavlin Genchev, who received 78 votes.

A guest at the conference was the Deputy Chair of the BSP Kristian Vigenin. He, Borislav Gutsanov and Atanas Zafirov received the most nominations for chair of the party, and their names will be sent to the party’s National Council.

„We must recognise that these elections were not brilliant, but they stopped the party’s decline. We managed to stand on firm ground. This is a chance the voters gave us. We have a normal atmosphere in the National Council, decisions are taken by normal voting, without anyone imposing them. Here too I see that there is a normal atmosphere, nobody accuses anybody. We come out, we speak, we state our opinion“, Kristian Vigenin shared with the delegates at the conference.

During the session those present adopted the report on the party organisation’s work over the past 4 years. Among those present was the MP Mariana Boyadzhieva, who briefed the delegates on what had been happening in the National Assembly over the past week.