The Bulgarian government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is increasingly employing repressive actions against its critics, according to Socialist Party leader and former PM Sergey Stanishev.

Stanishev spoke Saturday at a plenum of the National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

“There is clear the factor of fear of repressions on part of the government because every act of discontent is met with repressions on part of the entire administrative apparatus,” said the former PM whose party lost the July 2009 elections to Boyko Borisov's party GERB.

“Our country is increasingly paralyzed – the administration, the economy, the social sphere – everything is approaching a freezing point as a result of a lighthearted, fun-loving attitude on part of the Borisov government,” he declared.

Stanishev sought to analyze the situation of the Bulgarian Socialist Party a year after it lost the parliamentary elections.

“What do you expect? A miracle after a year after a severe election defeat? A total reversal of the public opinion? This would be unrealistic. We are facing an unknown adversary who does not play by the rules, a party which is clearly populist. There is no doubt that the GERB party is dynamic, media-aggressive, and flexible, and this is true not just for the political party itself but also for Prime Minister Boyko Borisov,” declared the Bulgarian PM in 2005-2009 before the more than one hundred members of the BSP National Council.

Stanishev did point out that the Bulgarian society “still has not just hopes but expectations for GERB for improving the situation.”

Adopting a self-critical tone, he said the Bulgarian Socialist Party was actually occupying people's attention with own problems rather than tackling the problems of its voters.

Stanishev analyzed what he described as four arguments for bringing about a substantial change in the BSP.

With respect to the first argument that only a change of the leader would change the party, he made clear his readiness to stand up to any challenger.

The second argument is that the Socialist Party needs “generational change” by throwing out the older activists. “I have proven that I favor making the party younger but this change must not be the cause of an internal party conflict,” the BSP leader stated.

He defined as “suicidal” the third scenario that the Socialist Party must “go from an army of conscripts to an army of professional soldiers,” i.e. that it should give up its aims to be a “mass party” and became a clearly-defined “electoral party” expressing the interests only of certain specific social groups.

“Our mass support is our power but only in combination with the reform and qualitative change of the party structures on the local level,” said Stanishev.

He mentioned he agreed with the fourth argument which is in favor of stronger espousing of leftist principles and steering clear of right-wing ideas because the voters are generally turning leftist in a time of economic crisis.

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