Volen Siderov

The Bulgarian Parliament rejected on Wednesday to include the proposal, which calls for limiting the extension of sanctions against Russia, for discussion in its weekly agenda.

The proposal of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) was first rejected by the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee on January 21, daily Dnevnik reports.

The Parliament's Committee on corruption, conflicts of interest and parliamentary ethics will stop reviewing anonymous tip-offs, according to Valentin Nikolov, chair of the entity.

The students behind last year's occupation of Sofia University are organising a protest demanding the resignations of several controversial politicians, who were appointed to high-level positions.

Lawmakers in Bulgaria's Parliament set up twelve permanent Committees on Thursday and are to create the remaining ten on Friday, amid controversy over how seats are allocated.

Most party group Chairmen remained ordinary members of committees, with the exception of Bulgarian Democratic Center (BDC)'s Svetlin Tanchev, who is presiding over the committee on European affairs.

Volen Siderov, who heads the ultra-nationalist party Ataka, has renounced the immunity he enjoys as a lawmaker in order to face prosecution.

Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva announced at the beginning of Wednesday's plenary session that Siderov had submitted the day before a declaration to request the move.

The National Assembly has approved four of the five requests to lift the immunity of lawmakers submitted earlier this week.

Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov demanded on Monday that former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, ultra-nationalist Ataka party's leader Volen Siderov and three other MPs be stripped of their immunity from prosecution.

Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev is to hold consultations with the left-wing ABV and ultra-nationalist Ataka on Friday.

Under Bulgaria's Constitution, presidential consultations with all parliamentary parties are a prerequisite for handing to a Prime Minister candidate from the biggest party the mandate to form a government.

Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov is to submit early in November demands that seven lawmakers who were sworn in this week be stripped of immunity.

Tsatsarov added Thursday he would also request the immunity of a MEP, the Bulgarian daily Sega reports.

The Chief prosecutors stopped short of giving names, provoking much speculation as to who the lawmakers are.

As expected, the left-nationalist party Ataka refused to have government consultations with the centre-right GERB.

According to the party leader Volen Siderov, the Ataka representatives tried to contact the GERB with a demand for live television broadcast of the negotiations, but did not receive an official response and cancelled the consultations.

I would like to tell the Bulgarians that in 10 days the country will have a centre-right government, Atanas Atanasov, an elected MP from the Reformist Bloc (RB), said during the Nova TV morning talk show.