Georgi Parvanov

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Georgi Parvanov bigraphy, stories - president of Bulgaria

Georgi Parvanov : biography

28 June 1957 – living

Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov ( ) (born June 28, 1957) was President of Bulgaria from 2002 to 2012. He was elected after defeating his predecessor Petar Stoyanov in the second round of the presidential election in November 2001 and he took office on January 22, 2002. Georgi Parvanov started his second presidential mandate following victory in the 2006 presidential election. Parvanov supports membership of Bulgaria in NATO and the European Union.

According to Bulgarian law, a Bulgarian president is not allowed to be a member of a political party, thus Parvanov is independent and he left the Socialist Party after his success in the presidential elections, although he identified as a socialist, Parvanov often declares being a ‘social president’. After his second mandate Parvanov says he is going to return in BSP beginning a "leadership debate" although he does not prepare himself for party positions. Even though rumours persist that he is going to challenge Sergei Stanishev at his leader’s position in BSP and even run for elections for the Prime Minister position.

Publications

Parvanov is an author of dozens of scientific articles. His monographs and books:

  • Dimitar Blagoev and the Bulgarian National Problem 1879–1917, 1988
  • From Bouzloudja to the Corona Theatre. An Attempt at a New Reading of Pages from the BSP’s Social Democratic Period, 1995
  • The Bulgarian Social Democracy and the Macedonian Issue at the End of the 19th century up to 1918, 1997
  • Before and after the 10th, 2001

References and notes

Political career

Major political positions

  • Member of the Bulgarian Communist Party since 1981 (renamed to Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP in 1990)
  • Deputy Chairman of the BSP Supreme Council: 1994
  • Chairman of the BSP Supreme Council: 1996
  • Re-elected Chairman of the BSP Supreme Council: 2000
  • Member of Parliament: 1994–2001
  • Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Friendship with Greece and member of the Parliamentary Committee on Radio and Television: 1994–1997
  • Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Left and the Parliamentary Group of Coalition for Bulgaria: 1997–2001
  • Elected President of the Republic of Bulgaria: November 2001. Took office: 22 January 2002.
  • Ran for re-election in 2006. Won the first round with 65 per cent of the vote on October 22. As turnout was less than 50%, he faced ultranationalist Volen Siderov at the runoff on October 29. Parvanov won with more than 75 per cent of the vote.

Collaboration with Committee for State Security

In 2006 Parvanov admitted that before 1989 there was a file on him at the former Communist Security Service (Darzhavna Sigurnost, or DS) under the nickname Gotse (to the revolutionary Gotse Delchev) for his scientific assistance on Macedonian topics. The file like most other files of the Security Service hasn’t been released to the public for a while (now is available online). According to Parvanov’s own statement, the file only shows that he had been consulted as a historian in conjunction with the writing of a memoir book about events related to the Macedonian Question in the 19th century. That was confirmed by two members of parliamentary commissions that had examined the files of the Security Service earlier — Bogomil Bonev and Veselin Angelov. Two other members, Metodi Andreev and Evgeni Dimitrov, accused the former of lying and asserted that the historical research had only been a prelude, followed by Parvanov’s consent to work as an agent and write a report about his institute.{}

2006 elections

In his second election campaign the incumbent Parvanov came first with 64.047% of the first round, much ahead of the ultranationalist leader Volen Siderov with 21.486% and other candidates who scored little. But as Bulgarian law requires a turnout of at least 50% – voter turnout in the first round was 42.51%. – for a president to be elected in the first round, a second round was necessary and Parvanov had to face Siderov in a run-off.