Sergey Stanishev

Sergei Dmitrievich Stanishev Сергей Дмитриевич Станишев
Prime Minister of Bulgaria
In office 17 August 2005 – 27 July 2009
President	Georgi Parvanov
Deputy	Ivaylo Kalfin Meglena Plugchieva Daniel Valchev Emel Etem Toshkova
Preceded by	Simeon Sakskoburggotski
Succeeded by	Boyko Borisov
President of the Party of European Socialists
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 September 2012
Preceded by	Sergei Stanishev (acting)
Interim President of the Party of European Socialists
In office 24 November 2011 – 29 September 2012
Preceded by	Poul Nyrup Rasmussen
Succeeded by	Sergei Stanishev
Personal details
Born	(1966-05-05) 5 May 1966 Kherson, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
Citizenship	Bulgarian (since 1996), Soviet and Russian (until 1996)
Political party	Bulgarian Socialist Party, Party of European Socialists
Domestic partner(s)	Elena Yoncheva (1994-2009) Monika Yanova (2011-) (1 child)
Ethnicity	Jewish

Sergei Dmitrievich Stanishev (Bulgarian: Сергей Дмитриевич Станишев, born May 5, 1966) is a Bulgarian politician who has been the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party since 2001 and the leader of the Party of European Socialists, the second-largest party in the European Parliament since 2011. He was Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2005 to 2009.

Personal life

Early life, education and career

Stanishev was born in Kherson in 1966, then in the Soviet Union, currently in Ukraine. He attended Moscow State University, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1989, and his PhD in 1994, both in the field of history. His doctoral thesis was entitled “The system of service promotion of high ranking officials in Russia and its evolution during the second half of XIX century”. In 1998, he specialized in political sciences at Moscow School of political studies. He was a visiting fellow in international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1999-2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist. In 1995 he became a staff member in the Foreign Affairs Department of the BSP. He was Chief of Foreign Policy and International Relations for the BSP from 1996 to 2001. In May 2000 he was elected a Member of the BSP Supreme Council and Member of the Executive Bureau. In June 2001, he entered the politics, when he was elected as a member of the Bulgarian National Assembly from the region of Ruse.

Stanishev lived from 1994-2009 with prominent journalist Elena Yoncheva. In 2002 he amazed party members when he came to a gathering at Buzludzha on a motorcycle with a rock-style jacket that had a label on the back saying: "If you are reading this, Elena must have fallen off on the way." The pair did not have any children. In 2011, PR agent Monika Yanova announced that she was having a baby by Stanishev. Their daughter Daria was born on May 1, 2011. Yanova is a divorcee who has two other children by her ex-husband Ventsislav Yosifov. Sergei Stanishev has one brother who is an architect - Georgii Stanishev.

Family background

Sergei Stanishev was born in Kherson, the Soviet Union. His father, Dimitar Yakov Stanishev was born in the village of Shtuka near the city of Strumica, at that time in Yugoslavia, today in the Republic of Macedonia. He was a communist partisan during World War II and thereafter a member of Sergei Stanishev's party, by this time called the Bulgarian Communist Party and head of the party's department for foreign policy and international affairs, he also participated as a deputy in the parliament. A native of Sergei Stanishev's birthplace - Kherson, his mother Dina Sergeevna Stanisheva is of Ukrainian Jewish descent. She was a professor and linguist, in Bulgaria at the Institute for Bulgarian Language in the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She teaches in the Sofia University. In an interview Sergei Stanishev said that he is not only Bulgarian and Balkan, but also European, because half the family from his maternal line are Baltic German, the other half - Northern Russian, referring to the countries Germany and Russia and not to the ethnic groups. Sergei Stanishev also declares himself a Macedonian Bulgarian.

Political career

Chairmanship of the Bulgarian Socialist Party

In December 2001 Stanishev was elected Chairman of the BSP at the party's Congress, and also Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the Coalition for Bulgaria following the resignation of the former bearer of these positions Georgi Parvanov after his victory in the Presidential election in 2001. Since April 2004 Stanishev has also been a member of the presidency of the Party of European Socialists. Even though, at the beginning, older party members regarded him with suspicion due to his lack of experience, Stanishev has enjoyed considerable public approval mainly because of his great intellectual skills and his successful efforts to modernise the BSP.

Prime minister

In the general election of June 25, 2005, Stanishev was re-elected to the National Assembly, this time for a seat in Burgas. Under his leadership the Coalition for Bulgaria (a coalition dominated by the BSP) won 31% of the votes. Stanishev said that the next government "should be led by the party which won most votes in the elections." On 20 July, after nearly a month of political uncertainty, Stanishev agreed to attempt to form a Cabinet. On July 27, 2005 the Bulgarian Parliament chose him as the new Prime Minister in a coalition government, led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and National Movement Simeon II in a partnership with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The vote was 120 to 119. However, the parliament voted against Stanishev's proposed Cabinet by 119 to 117 votes.

This was followed by another two weeks of political deadlock. Finally on August 15 Stanishev was able to form a three-party grand coalition with the party of outgoing Prime Minister Simeon Sakskoburggotski and with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a Turkish minority party. Stanishev said the coalition's priorities would be "European integration, social responsibility and economic growth." He was elected Prime Minister by the Bulgarian parliament on August 16 with 168 in favour and 67 against. On August 17, 2005, with an official ceremony on 1 Dondukov Boulevard, Sergey Stanishev took office as Prime Minister.

Sergei Stanishev is an avid pro-EU politician who is credited with reforming Bulgaria to the extent that he managed to steer his country to be among the last group of countries which joined the EU. The ex-Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev had said Bulgaria's EU entrance was the final fall of the Berlin Wall for his nation. EU President Jose' Manuel Barroso had hailed Bulgarian Prime Minister Stanishev for having made enough progress for Bulgaria to join the union.

The European Commission's report on Bulgaria and Romania's accession had confirmed that after seven years of talks, Bulgaria and Romania were able to take on the rights and obligations of EU membership. Reading the report, Mr Barroso said the two nations' entry would be a "historic achievement".

"Bulgaria and Romania have carried out an extraordinary reform process and they have gone through a remarkable transformation," he said.

In June 2008 Stanishev drew criticism from human rights advocates for his remarks regarding Bulgaria's first gay pride parade; the Prime Minister said he did not approve of "the manifestation and demonstration of such orientations."

Also in June 2008 The Guardian published an article highly critical of planned real estate development in a pristine seacoast area under EU environmental protection. Sergei Stanishev's brother, Georgi Stanishev, is the Bulgarian partner of Foster and Partners, the developer behind the controversial project.

In March 2009, New Europe published the heading 'Barroso backs Stanishev'. Stanishev received the full support of European Commissions President Jose Manuel Barroso, concerning the improvement of the cooperation with the European Commission and the enhancement of the administrative capacity. Prime Minister Stanishev was on a working visit to Brussels and met with President Barroso, as well as European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs and Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia.

Later in June 2009, Sergei Stanishev supported Jose' Manuel Barroso for a second term as EU Commission President.

External links

• PM Biography
• Power struggle looms in Bulgaria
• Bulgarian Socialist Party website