Mr. Pirinski was nominated as a BSP candidate for the largely ceremonial presidential post earlier this year despite the fact that he was born in the USA to an American mother and a Bulgarian emigre father (according to the Constitution, the presidents have to be "Bulgarians by birth"). The Constitutional court eventually refused registration of the nomination. The candidate nominated by BSP after that, the current culture minister Marazov, was badly defeated by the opposition candidate Petar Stoyanov, largely due to the impotent policies of the present BSP government. In an open letter 19 senior BSP members (including Alexander Lilov who himself had picked Videnov as his heir as a party leader) suggested that the policies should be revised and a new BSP government should be formed. Georgi Pirinski openly supported the letter and announced that he would vote against Mr. Videnov in a vote of confidence at a recent plenum of the party leadership. Despite that, Jean Videnov closely won the vote. He also got the leadership approval to "start studying the possibilities to introduce a currency board in Bulgaria", something requested by the International Monetary Fund. A BSP congress was scheduled for December 21 and 22 this year.
Provided the reformist wing manages to take over in BSP, Mr. Pirinski will be a prime candidate for the follow-up government prime minister's position. The dramatic power struggle would cast him in the eyes of some in Bulgaria and abroad as an internal opposition figure against the unpopular policies of the Videnov's government despite Mr. Pirinski's long time affiliation with this government. This would buy some time for the new government and the party which is half way through its 4-year mandate (BSP has an absolute majority in the present Bulgarian parliament where the real power is according to the Bulgarian constitution). Such course of events would somewhat slow down the push of the opposition for new parliamentary elections.