Bulgarian Socialist Party

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) chair Korneliya Ninova has been elected to the presidium of the Socialist International, her party says.

In a vote during the global body's meeting in Cartagena, Columbia, she has been picked by 150 delegates.

There are as many as 32 Vice Presidential seats in the presidium.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has a narrow edge on conservative GERB less than a month before the early election in March, a new poll shows.

According to the Market Links survey, some 21.4% of respondents would vote for the BSP if elections were to be held on February 27.

Vice President Iliana Iotova has fended off claims that the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is wielding influence on the presidency.

In an interview with private NOVA TV, however, she has warned one cannot expect of her to "give up the BSP overnight."

"Twenty of my best years are linked to the BSP," Iotova, a former MEP and core BSP member, has recalled.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has dismissed claims made on Monday by Boyko Borissov, - the former prime minister and leader of the centre-right GERB party - that the country's interim government had damaged the national interest by agreeing to allow more NATO forces in the Black Sea.

Journalists, artists, athletes, experts and former military men are joining the ranks of Bulgaria's main parties - the centre-right GERB led by Boyko Borissov and the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, led by Korneliya Ninova - ahead of the early parliamentary election set for March 26.

Five parties would make it to the Bulgarian Parliament in the event of a hypothetical election, a survey shows less than six weeks out of a parliamentary vote due in March.

In a poll by Trend Research Center, commissioned by 24 Chasa, Boyko Borisov's GERB party is maintaining a narrow lead on the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) of Korneliya Ninova.

The leaders of the parties that form part of Bulgaria's nationalist United Patriots coalition - the National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria, NFSB, VMRO and the extreme-right Ataka party, have accused their mainstream rivals of copying their key ideas ahead of the elections on March 26.

For the first time, an opinion poll has projected a slight edge for the Bulgarian Socialist Party on center-right GERB, the party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, in the event of a hypothetical election.

Bulgaria's caretaker government officially steps into office on Friday, after the country's new President Ramen Radev signed a decree appointing it on Wednesday.

Led by law professor and former President of the National Assembly Ognyan Gerdjikov, it has four deputy-prime ministers and 15 ministers with a predominantly expert profile.

Bulgaria's new head of state, ex-air force chief Rumen Radev, who was inaugurated on Sunday, is due to dissolve parliament on Thursday and to appoint an interim cabinet on Friday, sources told BIRN.