Bulgarian PM Slightly Lifts Veil On GERB's Presidential Candidate

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov slightly lifted the veil on his party's candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections which are scheduled to take place in the autumn.

However rather than naming any of the possible candidates, Borisov pointed to those who will not run in the elections.

In an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on Friday, the Bulgarian prime minister said that neither the incumbent mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova nor the mayor of Burgas, Dimitar Nikolov, will run in the elections.

The same goes for Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev.

According to him, all three of them are capable of contesting and winning the elections, but they are more important in their current positions.

Recently, Borisov said that neither he nor his deputy Tsvetan Tsvetanov will run for president.

It is still unclear whether incumbent President Rosen Plevneliev will run for second term.

Borisov has said that the presidential candidate of GERB will be announced in the summer.

Last week, Vice-President Margarita Popova said that she has been considering for some time the option of running for president.

Borisov said that the adoption of the amendments to the Electoral Code has once again proven that a coalition between GERB and the second largest opposition party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), is not possible.

According to him, a new opposition is emerging between the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), DPS and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB), one of the parties constituting the junior coalition partner - the Reformist Bloc (RB).

At the end of last year, DSB withdrew its support from the coalition government after the parliament failed to adopt all of the...