Kristian Vigenin: I have the knowledge and the ability to help the BSP be a strong party that works for people

„My path in big politics began in Yambol, our greatest successes are connected with Yambol and the region, and there have been failures too. Here there was always the understanding that the personal gives way to the common. In life and in politics I have learned a great deal from you. Thank you for all these years in which we have worked together and will go on working.“ With these words the Deputy Chair of the BSP and head of the Delegation of the Bulgarian Socialists in the EP Kristian Vigenin addressed fellow party members and sympathisers in Yambol, from where he was elected as an MP over several terms of the National Assembly. With this emotional meeting he began the series of conversations he will hold as part of the campaign for the election of a BSP chair. Vigenin admitted to the socialists in Yambol that the decision to stand for chair was not an easy one, because he knows the challenges every leader faces in these years: „It takes a great deal of courage, a great deal of boldness and a great deal of confidence in your own strength to take on such a commitment. After these years in politics and in government I have the knowledge and the ability to help the BSP be strong, to be the party that can effectively defend our left principles, that can defend a policy in the interest of people and give Bulgaria a new perspective. The path we are travelling is not from today to tomorrow, it is long“, Vigenin emphasised.

The Deputy Chair of the BSP is a supporter of direct election, as every member of the party must have the possibility to say who should lead the BSP. That is why, alongside his ideas for the development of the BSP, he will also defend the right of every socialist to be able to choose the leader according to their ideas and views on the party’s development.

Vigenin noted that the BSP’s participation in government is an opportunity but also a challenge. He warned that this step must be used in the best possible way, that the government must be honest and open towards people, and that the BSP must defend and deliver its policy. „This must be a government that does not merely put an end to the political crisis and a series of elections, but really gives a new perspective“, Kristian Vigenin set out the goal for the BSP. He believes the party must reach a qualitatively new state: „We need to develop the BSP so that at the next elections we are stronger. That depends on all of us, but above all on the future chair and on the leadership, who must structure the party and its work so that we have an identity and achievements. Let us create staff who will support our policy and let us succeed in helping the development of Bulgaria at both national and local level.“

„The unification of the left is a cause for me, and whatever the problems that have arisen in recent days, the united left will exist and will develop. The left will not be simply a mechanical sum of the parties that make it up. I believe it will gain more strength over time and that in this way every voter who feels themselves to be on the left will be able to vote for our left union“, the Deputy Chair of the BSP is convinced.

Taking part in the meeting were the chair of the BSP regional organisation in Yambol Mitko Andonov, the chairs of the BSP municipal councils from the five municipalities, Rayno Georgiev for Yambol, Stoyanka Madzharova for Elhovo, Yordan Koychev for Straldzha, Atanas Dzhenkov for Bolyarovo and Zhivko Zhelev for Tundzha, the MP Krasimir Yordanov, young people from the Yambol BSP structure, and many members and sympathisers who filled the hall of the Youth House in Yambol. The long-serving mayor of Bolyarovo Hristo Hristov also took part in the meeting. All of them expressed strong support for Kristian Vigenin’s candidacy for leader of the BSP from the standpoint of 20 years of working together and of what he has done for the region.