The radical Vazrazhdane ("Revival") party of Kostadin Kostadinov gave its first press conference two days after the vote, in which the party passed the 4-percent barrier and entered Parliament for the first time. Mr Kostadinov told reporters that his party was open to negotiations for the formation of a cabinet with all parties in the next parliament, except for GERB and MRF, but only if they agree to immediately lift all Covid-related restrictions.
Bulgarian National Television announced that the two contenders in the second round of the Presidential vote - incumbent candidate Rumen Radev and his GERB-backed opponent Anastas Gerdjikov - will participate in the only presidential debate at 8pm on Thursday.
Kornelia Ninova resigns as BSP leader, criticizing internal opponents and Radev
After pressure from her internal opposition and losing votes in three successive elections, socialist leader Kornelia Ninova said she would file her resignation to her party's National Congress in January. In April, BSP won 480,000 votes, followed by 365,000 in July, but the party kept third place. However, in last Sunday's election BSP collapsed to fourth, with only 266,000 votes.
Ms Ninova blamed both "objective" factors such as the pandemic and the machine vote for the party's result, as well as "subjective" ones, including the actions of her internal critics and the "new presidential party We Continue the Change (WCC), which stole 15 percent from BSP." Ms Ninova will likely still take part in the cabinet negotiations in coming weeks, which might make them even more difficult, as they will be led by WCC.
Bulgarian economy slows to a grind in third quarter: Eurostat
After a roaring second quarter in which Bulgarian GDP rose by a staggering 7 percent rate, the results for the third quarter show a significant drop in output. With only 0.4 percent growth for the period, Sofia is the slowest growing economy in the EU, Eurostat announced on Tuesday. The average growth rate for Union members is 3.9, while neighboring Romania - which is also battling a deteriorating Covid crisis and has a comparable lower vaccination rate - keeps its good performance from the past quarter and records 8 percent growth.
The lack of coherent anti-epidemic measures and increased electricity prices are blamed for Bulgaria's poor performance.
Judge Pavlina Panova is first woman to head Constitutional Court
She was chosen by the members of the court during a consilium on Tuesday after the mandate of the last chairman of the court Boris Velchev lapsed on Monday. Ms Panova has been a Constitutional Court member since November 2018. Before that, she used to be a prosecutor and later in her career was the deputy head of the Supreme Court of Cassation. She had previously been the main contender facing outgoing Supreme Judicial Council President Lozan Panov in the race to head the institution in 2015.
The radical Vazrazhdane ("Revival") party of Kostadin Kostadinov gave its first press conference two days after the vote, in which the party passed the 4-percent barrier and entered Parliament for the first time. Mr Kostadinov told reporters that his party was open to negotiations for the formation of a cabinet with all parties in the next parliament, except for GERB and MRF, but only if they agree to immediately lift all Covid-related restrictions.
Bulgarian National Television announced that the two contenders in the second round of the Presidential vote - incumbent candidate Rumen Radev and his GERB-backed opponent Anastas Gerdjikov - will participate in the only presidential debate at 8pm on Thursday.
