Bulgarian Stanishev re-elected as PES President
by Roni Alasor
Brussels, 12 June 2015 - Middle East Diplomatic (MED) - During the congress of the Party of European Socialist (PES) held in Hungarian capital Budapest, the Bulgarian former prime minister Sergei Stanishev re-elected as President.
Stanishev was one of the two PES candidates along with the Spanish current MEP and former president of the EP, Enrique Barón Crespo. However Crespo decided not to run for PES President.
The Bulgarian socialist politician and PES President Stanishev will now lead the European socialists until end of 2017 / beginning of 2018.
In a press release, Mr Stanishev said of his victory: "I am honoured and humbled to have been re-elected as President of the Party of European Socialists. I know that hard work stands ahead of me to grow socialism and social democracy in Europe, and I stand ready to take on that challenge. Thanks to all delegates, member parties and organisations who reconfirmed their confidence in me. This motivates me and the team to do more, and better, in order to really change Europe. I also want to thank the PES team for all their hard work and support over the years - I am sure that we can achieve a lot more together."
The re-elected PES President said "I believe that the PES will only be successful if we remember that our purpose is to change the world for the better, to ensure a dignified life for every individual and to achieve a fair and coherent society. My main goal is to gain peoples’ trust for this vision, and with that trust, to win the 2019 election."
Regarding the PES congress and newly elected Stanishev, the leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella, said:
"All the best and sincere congratulations to Sergei Stanishev for his re-election. We all need a strong PES to carry out, along with the S&D group, our common battles against austerity, unemployment and social and economic crises. Europe needs a strong social-democratic force. A force well anchored in society, side by side with the citizens, which is able to tackle global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, international crisis, migration and integration."