site.btaBSP: Dialogue Is Possible without Giving Up One's Identity

"The result of the leadership meeting showed that the steps we had outlined cannot be implemented. It became clear that there was no support for the four points we proposed: the adoption of an up-to-date budget, the adoption of the laws on the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the judicial reform and joining Schengen. These are the issues that we considered to be unifying and could be the basis for some more serious talks," said BSP deputy chair and deputy floor leader Atanas Zafirov on BNT.

He described the meeting as a positive step. "We showed that dialogue can be conducted without making us the same. And there was no question of government and coalitions - neither now nor in the future," Zafirov stressed.  

"No one realised this mandate does not belong to the BSP, but to the entire Parliament. It was the platform on which we had to stand and try to do something. Let the Bulgarian people be the judge. The next elections will show who is most to blame for the failure of this latest attempt [to form a regular government]," the socialist further commented.  

Atanas Zafirov said the BSP was surprised that some leaders did not come to the meeting. "The least we owe to Bulgarian society is to show that we care and are concerned about what is happening. We were involved in all talks on the first and second exploratory mandates and laid out our objections. This time it didn't even come to that, we just got some empty chairs," he pointed out. 

Zafirov expressed hope that the upcoming election campaign will be a bit more tolerant and calmer. "Unfortunately, the rift in Bulgarian society is developing very quickly[…] The Bulgarian parliament is a snapshot of society. We are divided into philes and phobes, red and blue, sick and healthy, pessimists and optimists. And accordingly, the political forces focus only on a part of society that wants to hear such messages because they correspond to their frame of mind, and in the end, we find that we cannot find common messages," he said. 

"If there is one thing that gives me reason for optimism, it is the potential higher voter turnout following the changes in the Election Code. Another significant feature is that there is no saviour figure looming in these elections, no new political project. That is why I think that these elections will be cleaner, and I hope that the results will be more objective," Atanas Zafirov said.