“It is important for the BSP to stand on solid ground, it needs stable leadership. However, I believe that it is a mistake to cancel the direct election of the chairman, the delegates at the congress will make the final decision.“ This was stated by the deputy chairman of the BSP and candidate for chairman of the party, Christian Vigenin, to NOVA. He specified that the direct election has had defects over time - for example, there is no complete clarity about the composition of the party, but this is a democratic procedure and gives the opportunity to ordinary members to choose. The abolition of the limitation on the number of mandates for certain positions would have a bad public response, according to Christian Vigenin, because it could be interpreted as a step backwards and the closure of the party.
“I have very well-structured ideas for changing the BSP, I am the only one who has proposed a written program for the development of the party. During my meetings with socialists in the country, I see that my proposals are well received“, emphasized Christian Vigenin. He outlined two main challenges for the BSP - to preserve its face by participating in the government, and to make internal reforms so that it stabilizes and has the resources to impose its policies.
Regarding this year's budget, the deputy chairman of the BSP believes that the nitpicking with numbers and confused messages must end: “I expect to see an active social policy in the budget that does not lead to a reduction in social spending and does not stop the growth of pensions. It is necessary to think about how to increase revenues, not reduce expenses. We proposed to increase concession fees and tax the excess profits of banks - these are realistic steps to increase revenues.“ Kristian Vigenin emphasized that the attitude of the Socialists towards the government will be formed by the nature of the budget and the management program. “In the management program, we expect to see our left-wing priorities. If we see that we cannot implement at least some of our policies, we have no place in the government, because it is not a priority of the BSP for some to simply get positions“, the candidate for party chairman emphasized.
Kristian Vigenin defined the Socialists' proposal to freeze product markups as a flexible and reasonable solution: “Freezing prices leads to losses for producers and a deficit, the proposal is to freeze the trade markup, which guarantees that there will be no speculation. We are talking about 70 products from the small consumer basket, this is a way to ensure that the most vulnerable will not be victims of speculative price increases.“ According to him, the promised increase in salaries in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Defense should not be reneged on, because the state has made a commitment to these people. If the upcoming membership in the eurozone is used as a motive to not increase the salaries of these professional communities, then they will have a negative attitude towards joining the common currency union, Vigenin warned.
The Deputy Chairman of the BSP said that the Socialists will have their own proposals for filling the regulators. However, he believes that this should not be on a party and quota principle, but with full transparency and according to the professional qualities of the candidates, because if the regulators work well, then this is good for the state.
“Continuing military aid to Ukraine is a problem for the BSP because it encourages conflict. We are not against humanitarian aid. There are visible efforts to end the war, let us be among the first to encourage peace, even more so - Bulgarians have traditionally friendly relations with both sides“, commented Christian Vigenin on another important topic.