Patriotic Front

Bulgarian authorities have not only failed to counter the climate of intolerance, but "have actively engaged in inflammatory speech and at times openly encouraged violence," John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Europe Director, has said.

His words follow the attack on Krasimir Kanev, who heads the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee on Friday.

Helsinki Committee leader Krasimir Kanev told BIRN on Thursday that he was attacked at around 9.30am that day in front of the Radisson hotel in Sofia by two unknown men who punched him in the face and stomach and ran away. Police arrived around 15 minutes later, but the attackers had by then fled from the scene.

Lawmakers have agreed to open every session of Bulgaria's Parliament with the national anthem.

The proposal was initially made by the Patriotic Front, the nationalist coalition backing Bulgaria's minority cabinet, but also gathered support among MPs from other parties.

It has been unanimously backed by the 77 MPs present during the vote.

The restriction for the opening of up to 35 electoral sections will be abolished for EU member-states but it will remain valid for the rest of the world, decided deputies in the legal commission who discussed at first reading the 12 draft bills for amendments to the Electoral Code.

17 days remain until the presidential elections.

Valeri Simeonov from the Patriotic Front has been elected chairman of the commission which will investigate the facts regarding the Belene nuclear power plant.

At an emergency meeting on Tuesday, deputies voted for the creation of a commission which must investigate the circumstances concerning the project in the period 2006 and the end of September 2016.

The three partners forming or backing Bulgaria's minority cabinet have finally reached a compromise to amend the Electoral Code after an emergency meeting, removing a cap on the number of poling stations outside Bulgaria.

One of the "heavyweight" parties of the Reformist Bloc alliance, the junior partner in Bulgaria's coalition government, has said it will pull out of governance if the bloc's candidate fails to gather enough votes in the presidential elections.

Bulgaria's main ruling party GERB is set to propose eleventh-hour amendments to the Electoral Code at an extraordinary Parliament session on Tuesday, party officials have said.

The announcement comes hours after both President Rosen Plevneliev and Ombudsman Maya Manolova confirmed their intention to refer sections of the code to the Constitutional Court.

"GERB's Parliamentary Group asked me today to reshape the government.

The rules of the new Electoral Code do not work, they set traps and put in doubt the holding of the elections, warn Bulgarians abroad united in the civil initiative "I Want To Vote".