The leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Sergey Stanishev said he would leave Bulgaria's National Assembly to become a member of the European Parliament, after winning a seat in the May 25 European elections.
Stanishev, however, said he will remain at the helm of BSP.
Stanishev is also leader of the Party of European Socialists (PES).
In the May 25 elections the Socialists won a mere 18.9% of votes, versus 30.4% for the opposition centre-right GERB party. The ethnic Turks' Movement for Rights and Freedoms polled 17.3% of the votes. Two more political formations - Bulgaria without Censorship and the Reformist Bloc - crossed the 5.88% threshold for entry into the EP.