Sofia, April 17 (BTA) - The National Council of the Bulgarian
Socialist Party (BSP) will support  President Rumen Radev and
Vice
President Iliana Iotova for a second term run, BTA learned from
participants in the meeting.

The decision was taken unanimously during the BSP National
Council, which took place on Saturday.

The BSP National Council accepted the proposal of the BSP
Executive Bureau to support President Radev and Vice President
Iotova with 122 votes in favour, zero against and 9 abstentions,
 according to the BSP press centre.

The members of the BSP National Council have formed a working
group which will discuss with the President and Vice President
the formula of their nomination, their initiative committee and
the policies that Radev and Yotova will stand behind.

The group will be led by Kornelia Ninova, and will include
representatives of the party leadership - Irena Anastasova and
Atanas Zafirov, as well as representatives of the leadership of
the BSP parliamentary group - Christian Vigenin and Hristo
Prodanov.

The BSP National Council is to approve the scope of the policies
 developed by the Executive Bureau, which will be the subject of
 talks between the working group and the presidential candidate
couple for their second term.

At a briefing after the meeting, Ninova also commented on how
the BSP will react when forming a government.

The BSP for Bulgaria parliamentary group will vote against a
government proposed by GERB, but will support a cabinet formed
by There Is Such a People on five conditions: rapid action to
reduce the effects of the pandemic and the healthcare crisis;
urgent measures to fight corruption and restore parliamentarism;
 objective audit of the state budget; transparency in
operational programmes; amendments to the electoral legislation
to ensure a fair vote.

The BSP leadership also sets one more condition - if the
parliamentary majority or the cabinet pursue policies that
contradict the BSP's pre-election commitments, then this
government will not receive the support of the BSP parliamentary
 group.

In the event that the BSP receives mandate to form a government,
 the BSP National Council will make a decision as a matter of
urgency.

The matter of convening a BSP congress was not raised at the
plenary session, Ninova added.

***

In front of the party's headquarters, young socialists from
Pernik demanded the resignation of BSP leader Kornelia Ninova
because of the poor election results and because for the first
time there ware no MPs under the age of 35 in the left-wing
group. The protesting BSP members chanted "Resignation!".

''The time of this chairperson is long over and the elections
proved it,'' commented Kiril Dobrev at the entrance to the BSP
building in response to a journalist's question. ''Ninova should
 appear before the party and apologize for everything she did,''
 he added. ''Why was it necessary to lose the elections, only to
 support Rumen Radev now?'' Dobrev asked, wondering why the BSP
leadership was pulling back before.  NV/DT