Petar Stoyanov
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Petar Stefanov Stoyanov (, born 25 May 1952) is a Bulgarian statesman and politician who served as the 2nd President of Bulgaria from 1997 to 2002. A member of the Union of Democratic Forces, he won the second democratic election in modern Bulgarian history. Throughout Stoyanov’s presidency, Bulgaria made substantial progress in its efforts of joining
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and the
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.


Biography

Stoyanov was born on 25 May 1952, in
Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...
, Bulgaria.The Honorable Petar Stoyanov
,
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After graduating from secondary school, Stoyanov entered the Saint Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia law faculty where he graduated with honors in 1976.His Excellency Petar Stoyanov, President Of Bulgaria
,
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He practiced civil law in Plovdiv through the next fifteen years. In addition to his mother tongue Bulgarian, Stoyanov also speaks English and German . Stoyanov entered politics in 1990, shortly after the political changes in Bulgaria at the end of 1989. He co-founded and chaired a Democracy Club in Plovdiv and later that same year became spokesman of the Plovdiv Coordinating Council of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), a new Bulgarian coalition in opposition to the former ruling political parties ( BKP and BZNS). In 1991 Stoyanov joined the country's first post-communist government as Deputy Minister of Justice. In 1993 the UDF led government failed a vote of no confidence and was replaced. In May 1993 Stoyanov became a President of the UDF Legal Council. In 1994, he was elected Member of Parliament and was chosen as Deputy Chairman of the UDF Parliamentary Group, in addition to being Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Youth, Sports, and Tourism. In 1995 he became Deputy Chairman of UDF, responsible for domestic policy.


Presidency

On 1 June 1996 Petar Stoyanov won the 1996 ODS presidential primary with 66% of the 870,000 votes cast and thus became the presidential candidate of the UDF. He received a plurality of votes in the first round of the presidential election, ahead of the socialist candidate Ivan Marazov and Bulgarian Business Bloc founder and leader George Ganchev. In the second round he defeated Marazov by a margin of 19.5%. Stoyanov was sworn in as President on 19 January 1997 and stepped into office on 22 January 1997. He was the first Bulgarian Head of State after the Second World War, who had never been a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party. At the beginning of his tenure, Petar Stoyanov played a decisive role in one of the most dramatic crisis in the modern history of Bulgaria. For over a month, tens of thousands of citizens came out in protest against the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) led
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
. After the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Videnov, the new leader of the BSP, Georgi Parvanov and Videnov's proposed successor as Prime Minister, Nikolay Dobrev, visited the newly elected Head of State with a proposed Cabinet. With a majority in the 37th National Assembly, the BSP had the ability to approve the new Cabinet, however President Stoyanov refused to propose it for a vote in Parliament. Instead, on the same day, 4 February 1997, he summoned the National Security Consultative Council, which included representatives from all parties represented in Parliament. During this Consultative Council the BSP were forced to return the mandate to form a new government, and new elections were scheduled. President Stoyanov appointed a Caretaker Government headed by
Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...
Mayor Stefan Sofianski, who was a member of the Union of Democratic Forces. Subsequently the UDF received a majority in Parliament and formed a
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
, which would go on to be Bulgaria's first post 1989 government to serve a full term (1997-2001). At the request of President Stoyanov, the Caretaker Government officially submitted a request for Bulgaria's membership in NATO. Petar Stoyanov also played an important role in resolving the Kosovo crisis, strongly supporting the Alliance. During his presidency Bulgaria entered into active negotiations for accession to the European Union and ratified the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The original manuscript of  '' Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya'' was returned to the monastery library of the Zograf Monastery on 12 January 1998 at his request. At Stoyanov's invitation, a sitting US President visited Bulgaria for the first time, when
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
made a historic three-day visit between 21 and 23 November 1999. During his term in office Stoyanov became the first Head of state in the world to sign a law with an electronic signature. Petar Stoyanov has been a member of the Internet Society - Bulgaria, since 21 July 2000.


2001 Presidential Election

Petar Stoyanov ran for a second term in 2001, but lost in the second round to Georgi Parvanov, despite the fact that he was initially leading in the polls. During a TV debate with the other candidates, Stoyanov produced a classified file containing information about one of them, Bogomil Bonev and his alleged contacts with persons of dubious repute. One of the presenters, Ivo Indzhev read it out, while the other one, Svetla Petrova, stated that Stoyanov "risked the winner of the dispute being Georgi Parvanov", the socialist candidate who was absent. It is believed that Stoyanov's actions regarding this classified document deterred many swing voters, who were thus inclined to support Parvanov, due to his more moderate behaviour. During the campaign Petar Stoyanov did not receive the full support of any political party. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (a party with strong support from the ethnic Turkish minority in Bulgaria) strongly supported the candidate of the former Communist Party, Georgi Parvanov, despite the oppression that Bulgarian Turks were subjected to during the so-called "Revival process" by the Bulgarian Communist Party. Prior to the start of the campaign, Stoyanov had been supported by the UDF, however the leaders of the party only made ambiguous statements during the campaign itself, which voters were baffled by. NDSV, the new party of former monarch Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which had won a majority of seats in the parliamentary election earlier that year, had been expected to support Stoyanov. However, the leader of the movement then prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha announced that he would not vote in the second round, motivated by the desire to save the state the cost of the trip to the village of Banya, where he was registered and this disheartened his followers and voters. Petar Stoyanov finished second in the first round of voting with 34.9%, behind the socialist candidate Georgi Parvanov with 36.3%, and ahead of Bogomil Bonev with 19.2%. Stoyanov lost the runoff to Parvanov by a margin of 8.3%. Petar Stoyanov's loss in this election, alongside poor performance in the earlier parliamentary election, marked the beginning of a period of decline for the Union of Democratic Forces.


Later political career

In September 2004, Stoyanov was appointed Special Envoy for
Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...
by the
OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...
Chairman-in-Office. In 2005, Stoyanov returned to active politics. He was elected as a member of the 40th National Assembly in the parliamentary election held that year. He then became a member of the European Integration Committee and a member of State Administration Affairs Committee. Because of the UDF's poor result (8.4% of the popular vote and 20 out of 240 seats), he became a vocal opponent of party leader Nadezhda Mihailova. On October 1, 2005 the UDF National Conference elected him as Chairman of the party. On 20 May 2007 the first European Parliament election in Bulgaria was held. Stoyanov – who led the UDF list – failed to get elected as UDF fell 1% short of the 5.66% effective electoral threshold. This resulted in his resignation from the leadership of the Union of Democratic Forces on 22 May 2007.


Other

Stoyanov serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the
World Justice Project The World Justice Project (WJP) is an international civil society organization with the stated mission of "working to advance the rule of law around the world". It produces the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, a quantitative assessment t ...
. The
World Justice Project The World Justice Project (WJP) is an international civil society organization with the stated mission of "working to advance the rule of law around the world". It produces the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, a quantitative assessment t ...
works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the
Rule of Law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...
for the development of communities of opportunity and equity. In 2002, as a fellow of The German Marshall Fund, Petar Stoyanov delivered lectures in the US at John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
,
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...
(Washington, DC) and other universities. In 2022 Stoyanov, together with Iuliana Metodieva and Mitko Novkov of '' Association for Human Rights Marginalia'' launched a campaign to honor volunteers and organizations who help refugees from Ukraine during the refugee crisis in Bulgaria following the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
. The grand prize for overall contribution was given to Olena Kotseva from the ''Mati Ukraine'' association.


Family

He is married to Antonina Stoyanova and has a son Stefan (born 1979) and a daughter Fany (born 1990). His younger brother, Emil Stoyanov, is a former MEP from GERB.


Honours and awards

* : Grand Cross (or 1st Class) of the Order of the White Double Cross (1997) * : Collar of the Order of Civil Merit * : Grand Cross with Sash of the
Order of the Star of Romania The Order of the Star of Romania (Romanian: ''Ordinul Steaua României'') is Romania's highest civil Order and second highest State decoration after the Order of Michael the Brave. It is the oldest Order of Romania. It is awarded by the Preside ...
(1998) * : Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (1999) * : Knight of the
Order of the Elephant The Order of the Elephant () is a Denmark, Danish order of chivalry and is Denmark's highest-ranked honour. It has origins in the 15th century, but has officially existed since 1693, and since the establishment of constitutional monarchy in ...
(2000)


References


External links


Personal website of Petar Stoyanov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoyanov, Petar 1952 births Bulgarian conservatives Bulgarian anti-communists 20th-century Bulgarian lawyers Living people Presidents of Bulgaria Recipients of the Grand Star of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria Collars of the Order of Civil Merit First Class of the Order of the Star of Romania