Key Bulgarian Opposition Official Quitting Party

Strahil Angelov, a former lawmaker and now deputy head of one of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)'s local organizations in the capital Sofia, is leading the party.

Along with two other BSP members, Iskra Neycheva and Bozhidar Petrov, Angelov is quitting due to the lack of development within the party which, in his words, is failing to move forward in a constantly changing world.

He told the Bulgarian National Radio on Sunday that a "great party" was annihilaetd by the previous leadership (namely "Sergey Stanishev, his wife, PES [Party of European Socialists, headed now by Stanishev] where it is very important for him to be, to the detriment of all of us").

The current leadership, he says, "looks archaic" in the face of Mihai Mikov, who took over last July.

The BSP has been trying to reestablish its identity after the huge blow it suffered in the general elections last autumn, with its 39 MPs being one of its worst-ever results.

For his part, Angelov made headlines early in 2014 when he made a trip to war-stricken Syria and met government officials there, in what he and his party then called "a personal visit."