[2] Born in New York City, U.S. in the emigrant family of Communist functionary Georgi Pirinski Sr., he has roots from Pirin Macedonia.

His father found refuge in the U.S. after he participated in the unsuccessful Communist uprising against the Bulgarian ruling monarchy in 1923 and was expelled from the U.S. as an undesirable alien in 1951.

While a convinced communist, Pirinski did show some flashes of independent thinking, such as expressing disagreement in a private conversation with foreign visitors in 1970 at the decision of Bulgarian media to downplay the U.S. moonwalk the previous year.

He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1974, but political opponents later argued that the renunciation was judicially null.

[3] Pirinski was considered the BSP's favorite for the 1996 presidential nomination until the Constitutional Court barred him from participating in the presidential elections for failing to satisfy a constitutional requirement that the president be a Bulgarian citizen by birth (he was a U.S. citizen by birth).