Alternative for Bulgarian Revival

Novinite publishes profiles of presidential candidates running in the forthcoming elections on November 06.

We continue with Ivaylo Kalfin, a former Foreign Minister and MEP running on the ticket of President (2002-2012) Georgi Parvanov's party.

Bulgarian main opposition Socialists will decide at a party referendum with which political parties to join forces for the forthcoming presidential elections, the party's new leader, Korneliya Ninova, has said.

"I think that we should seek a broad alliance on the left," Ninova told Nova TV on Monday.

Ninova added that she didn't see Ivaylo Kalfin as a viable nomination.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Ivaylo Kalfin has made clear if ABV, a left-wing party which he represents in the cabinet, will quit the government coalition if the Electoral Code being voted is adopted in its current form.

The left-wing ABV party (Alternative for Bulgarian Revival) of former two-term President Georgi Parvanov is holding an internal party vote to elect a leader.

Parvanov resigned from the post of ABV Chair in March after MPs from the party backed the taking of new debt of BGN 16 B, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio.

Former Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov announced that he is going to resign his party's leadership due to the decision of ABV's parliamentary group to support the issue of new debt.

The Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) was initially opposed to the issue of new debt amounting to BGN 16 B, but the party altered its position and voted in favour on Wednesday.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Rositsa Yanakieva passed away in the small hours of Monday, her party ABV's press office reports.

Yanakieva had been in a coma for days after a haemorrhage of the brain on January 6.

A former Mayor of Pernik for two consecutive terms (2005-2014), a town near the capital Sofia, she was elected MP in the October 5 early elections.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party is ready to join a "grand coalition" including all parties to the left, a socialist lawmaker has said.

Maya Manolova, who was at the spearhead of the formerly ruling BSP's legislative moves in the previous Parliament, is now known for her dissension with some of her party's main policy lines.

The leader of ABV and former Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov announced that his party is willing to lend support to parties of the left, including BSP at the forthcoming local elections in the autumn.