Georgi Parvanov

Infobox_President
name = Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov
Георги Седефчов Първанов


order = President of Bulgaria
primeminister = Simeon Sakskoburggotski
Sergey Stanishev
vicepresident = Angel Marin
term_start = 22 January 2002
term_end =
predecessor = Petar Stoyanov
successor =
birth_date = birth date and age|1957|06|28|df=y
birth_place = Sirishtnik
death_date =
death_place =
spouse = Zorka Parvanova
party = BSP

Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov ( _bg. Георги Седефчов Първанов) (born 28 June 1957) has been president of Bulgaria since 22 January 2002. Parvanov became president after defeating his predecessor, Petar Stoyanov, in the second round of the November 2001 presidential election. He retained his position following the elections in 2006.

Parvanov declares that is in favour of Bulgarian membership of NATO and the European Union. He identifies as a socialist but left the Bulgarian Socialist Party after he had been elected president, as the president is not allowed to be a political party member.

On election, his programme was to be a 'social' president, with care towards poor, unemployed and disadvantaged people. Parvanov helped in the creation of a three-party government coalition on 16 August 2005.

Early years

Georgi Parvanov was born in the village of Sirishtnik, Pernik Province on June 28, 1957. He grew in the nearby village Kosacha. In 1975 he finished a secondary school in Pernik and in 1981 he finished history at the Sofia University, speciality "History of Bulgarian Communistic Party". In 1988 he defended a doctorate thesis in history with the title "Dimitar Blagoev and the Bulgarian national question 1879-1917".

Professional career

* Joined the Institute of History of the Bulgarian Communist Party as researcher: 1981:Main interest: the Bulgarian national issue and the early history of social democracy in Bulgaria
* Senior Research Associate: 1989
* Member of the [http://www.isoc.bg/index_en.html Internet Society of Bulgaria] since May 2001

Political career

* 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.

Publications

Dozens of scientific articles, monographs and books, including:
* "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).

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). The file, which, like most files of the Security Service, hasn't been released to the public, does not prove beyond reasonable doubt that he has actually been an agent at the DS, and those who have had access to it disagree as to what it contains. 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 from one hundred years ago and especially the Macedonian Question. That was confirmed by two members of parliamentary commissions that had examined the files of the Security Service earlier — Bogomil Bonev and Veselin Angelov.cite web
url=http://mediapool.bg/show/?storyid=118644
title=mediapool.bg : Parvanov admitted about Gotse
publisher=mediapool.bg bg icon
accessdate=2008-04-23
last=
first=] Two other members, Metodi Andreev and Evgeni Dimitrov, accused the first two 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. [cite web
url=http://www.sedembg.com/165/page16.htm
title=Parvanov should resign
publisher=www.sedembg.com bg icon
accessdate=2008-04-23
last=
first=]

A year later, on 19 July 2007, a special Commission for Opening the Files determined officially that the President Georgi Parvanov was listed as a secret police collaborator of the former Communist Security Service from 1989 till 1993.cite web | year = 2007 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6907313.stm | title = Parvanov 'listed as collaborator' | accessdate = 2007-07-20] He was recruited a month before Bulgaria's communist regime collapsed. It also became obvious that a large part of his secret file was missing.

2006 Elections

In the first round of the elections, incumbent Parvanov came first with 64.047%cite web |url=http://www.izbori2006.org/results/ |title=Elections 2006: Final results for the country according to the Central Electoral Commission for the President and Vice President Elections |language=Bulgarian |accessdate=2006-10-24 |publisher=Izbori2006.org] ahead of ultranationalist leader Volen Siderov with 21.486%, whom he had to face in a run-off, as Bulgarian law requires a turnout of at least 50% for a president to be elected in the first round. The voter turnout in the first round was 42.51%.cite web |url=http://www.izbori2006.org/activity/ |title=Elections 2006: Voter turnout for the country as of 7 pm |language=Bulgarian |publisher=Izbori2006.org]

The second round saw a decisive Parvanov victory of around 75.9% as opposed to Siderov's 24.1%, meaning that Parvanov became the first person to be democratically re-elected as President of Bulgaria. [Zhelyu Zhelev, although having served two terms, was elected as a president not by popular vote, but by the National Assembly for his first term.] The turnout was 41.11%.cite web |url=http://focus-news.net/?id=n588295 |title=41,11 % е окончателната избирателна активност в страната към 19 часа |publisher=Focus News |language=Bulgarian |date=2006-10-29 |accessdate=2006-10-29 ]

References and notes

See also

* Bulgarian presidential election, 2006
* HIV trial in Libya

External links

* [http://www.president.bg/en/ Official Presidential Website of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria - Georgi Parvanov]

Persondata
NAME=Parvanov, Georgi Sedefchov
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Георги Седефчов Първанов (Bulgarian)
SHORT DESCRIPTION=president of Bulgaria
DATE OF BIRTH=28 June 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH=Sirishtnik, Bulgaria
DATE OF DEATH=living
PLACE OF DEATH=