Next Bulgarian parliamentary election

Accusations of betrayal over North Macedonia

Kornelia Ninova, the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, casts her vote at parliamentary elections in March 2017. Photo: EPA/VASSIL DONEV

The BSP, which came third in the most recent polls in July, is being given the chance to form a government after failed attempts by the winning party There is Such a Nation and former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's GERB.

If parliamentary elections were held in mid-December, GERB would retain its first position with 23.5% of the votes, followed by the Socialists (BSP) with 20.8%. These numbers are close to those received in the October survey by Exacta, when GERB had an electoral share of 23.7%, and BSP - 20.1%. The distance between GERB and BSP has remained unchanged since the beginning of the year.

Bulgarian President-elect Rumen Radev has criticized the Road Infrastructure Agency over its move to renew the public procurement procedure for a road toll system.

Radev has accused the agency of not abiding by a ban from outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov on conducting any tenders until the current cabinet leaves office in January.

Veselin Mareshki, the entrepreneur-turned-politician, has said his newly set up party will be the big surprise of the snap general poll.

"We continue fighting the fuels cartel, since it is the cartel plundering the state in the worst way," the pharmaceutics boss with several fuel stations in his hometown Varna has told the Bulgarian National Radio.

Bulgaria is clearly going down a path of pro-European development and does not consider abandoning it, President-elect Rumen Radev has said in an interview.

Hristo Ivanov, who stepped down as Bulgaria's Justice Minister last December, launched a new political project on Friday.

At a meeting held exactly a year after he resigned after what he saw as a failed judicial reform, he told the audience that a "broad structure" of civic organizations and politicians was needed to address corruption and issues with the rule of law.

The Bulgarian parliament reversed its decision on one of the amendments to the Electoral Code it had adopted last week, which stipulated that referendums and elections should not be held simultaneously.

The governing coalition of Bulgaria must prepare for a challenge to the recent introduction of compulsory voting from the Constitutional Court, Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva said on Tuesday.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said that she will not back down from carrying out the reform of the interior ministry.

Her comments come after the draft amendments to the Interior Ministry Act were rejected by the parliamentary internal security and public order committee earlier in the week.