President of the Republic of Bulgaria

Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov was born on 28 June, 1957, in the village of Sirishtnik, Pernik district. 1975 - finished the High School of Mathematics in Pernik.  Graduate of the Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia with a degree in history, 1981 1981-1991 - Research Associate at the Institute of History of the Bulgarian Communist Party /BCP/. Main field of scholarly interest: the Bulgarian national question and the early history of social democracy in Bulgaria 1988 - PhD in History, doctoral thesis on "Dimiter Blagoev and the Bulgarian National Problem 1879-1917" 1989 - Senior Research Associate 1992 - 1996 - Director of the Centre for Historical /History/ and Political Research /Policy Studies/ at the Supreme Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party /BSP/. 1994 - Deputy to the 37th National Assembly: Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Friendship with Greece and member of the Parliamentary Committee on Radio and Television 1994 - Deputy Chairman of the BSP Supreme Council Dcember 1996 - elected Chairman of the Supreme Council of the BSP . 1997-2001 - Deputy to the 38th National Assembly; Chairman / Floor leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Left, and of the Coalition for Bulgaria Parliamentary Group Re-elected leader of the BSP at the 43th Congress of the Party in May 1998.

On 4 February 1997 Parvanov and Nikolay Dobrev, then nominee for Prime Minister, handed back the mandate for forming another cabinet of the Democratic Left. This act following a difficult political decision prevented the country from slipping into civil unrest after the attack on Parliament of 10-11 January 1997.

A BSP Plenum held in early March 2000 passed a resolution to initiate a Council for European Integration intended to collect materials on the progress of Bulgaria's negotiations for joining the EU, as well as educate the BSP activists in EU integration issues. The institution of this Council had been recommended by Parvanov in a special report discussing the tasks the BSP would face in the course of the EU talks. He was in charge of the work of the Council as its chairman.
At the 44th Congress of the BSP held on 6-7 May 2000 he was re-elected leader of the BSP by a large majority vote.

 

Elected President of the Republic of Bulgaria in November 2001, took office on 22 January 2002.

October 2006 - Re-elected President of the Republic of Bulgaria /for a second term/.

 

 

Married, with two sons. Working knowledge of Russian and English.

Publications:
A number of scholarly articles, monographs and books, among them: 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/, November 10: Before and after /2001/.

 

Perspective of the day