Kornelia Ninova resigns as Bulgarian Socialist Party leader

I take full responsibility for the result of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) in the November 14 elections and resign, BSP leader, Kornelia Ninova, said at a press conference at the party headquarters on November 16.

"I waited for the final results of the elections. I assess this result as catastrophic, especially with the fact that we gave way from third to fourth place. I take full responsibility, the blame is entirely mine," she added.

According to her, many things have contributed the catastrophic result of the Socialists. The machine voting has made it difficult for voters, the Covid-19 crisis also had an impact and many people were too scared to go to the polls. The subjective reasons, according to Ninova, are a matter of a long conversation in the party.

"Since yesterday, a group in the BSP has demanded my resignation, but this does not impress me, because they have been doing it for five years, this is the so-called internal opposition," Ninova commented.

However, what surprised her was that Anton Kutev demanded her resignation n his capacity of a spokesman for the caretaker government, and not as part of the BSP plenum. She was also surprised that President Radev's initiative committee had asked for it. She called on the caretaker cabinet to resolve the crises in the country and the initiative committee to think about the runoff.

Ninova also announced that BSP had received an invitation from "We Continue the Change" to form a cabinet.

We have accepted the invitation for negotiations with “We Continue the Change”. on forming a government, Firstly, we will put our programmes on the table, we will look for common ground, we will look for unification, we will work for the format of working groups, expert groups to discuss a programme for future government," Kornelia Ninova added.

A plenum will be convened on Saturday to mandate a working group to negotiate with “We Continue the Change” on government.

The BSP for Bulgaria coalition came in fourth place in the November 14th early parliamentary elections. Ninova will remain in the post of BSP party leader until January, when BSP will convene a congress.