Today at the congress of the Party of European Socialist held in Budapest, the Bulgarian former prime minister Sergei Stanishev was re-elected president. He was one of the two candidates running for the presidency, along with the Spanish MEP and former president of the European Parliament, Enrique Barón Crespo.
 
The leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella, said:
 
"All the best and sincere congratulations to Sergei Stanishev for his re-election. We all need a strong PES to carry out, along with the S&D Group, our common battles against austerity, unemployment and social and economic crises. Europe needs a strong social-democratic force. A force well anchored in society, side by side with the citizens, which is able to tackle global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, international crisis, migration and integration.
 
"I also want to pay tribute to Enrique Barón on behalf of myself and the group. Thanks to Enrique in Budapest we had a real, democratic and very passionate congress. This is the best medicine to reinvigorate social-democrat forces across Europe.
 
"We are sure that now PES will be keen to open itself to young people and new movements coming from society, beyond the traditional forces. We are the change."