Bulgaria: Former PM Jean Videnov Makes Comeback in Politics

Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Jean Videnov announced that he is returning to politics, founding a new Left Alternative party, adding that he plans to run in the upcoming early elections with the coalition "For a Clean and Holy Republic", a part of which is the Union of Communists in Bulgaria.

Videnov claims that the current political crisis in the country was caused by the "Bulgarian perestroika" ending and that he is ready to organise street protests and defend the country, "if necessary with a weapon in hand." 

It became clear from the interview Videnov gave for a regional online media Plovdiv-press that his project will be pro-Russian, saying that "the BSP has no future" and needs an alternative.

Videnov was prime minister from 1995 to 1996 and leader of the Socialist party BSP from 1991 to 1996. On 21 December 1996, Videnov resigned from all posts under pressure from mass street protests across the country. While he was PM, Bulgaria went through a severe economic crisis combined with hyperinflation. 

Videnov then retired from active politics and taught at the European College of Economics and Management in Plovdiv, where he is an associate professor and doctor of economics and philosophy. /Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg