National conservatism

The Central Electoral Commission announces that according to the results from the processed 89.73% of the protocols from the section election commissions, the new Bulgarian parliament will consist of 5 political forces.

GERB won 32.58% of the votes.

Coalition "BSP for Bulgaria" - 26.82%.

Coalition "United Patriots - NFSB, attack and VMRO" - 9,17%.

We pointed out very clearly and directly that there is external interference in the creation of the crisis in the Republic of Macedonia.

The approval rating of the leader of the Macedonian party VMRO-DPMNE - Nikola Gruevski - is almost double that of Zoran Zaev, chairman of the SDSM (Macedonian Social Democratic Party).

BELGRADE - The deadline for submitting candidacies for the April 2 presidential elections in Serbia expired at midnight, with 12 candidacies registered with the national election commission and seven confirmed to date.

SYRIZA and Independent Greeks (ANEL), the two parties that share power in the ruling coalition, on Friday called for a parliamentary investigation into defense procurements during Socialist veteran Yiannos Papantoniou's stint as defense minister between 2001 and 2003.

The leader of the Democration Union of Integration (DUI) in Macedonia said Thursday the party was working on a "Plan B" that would be triggered to secure the formation of a government.

Borjan Jovanovski, an editor at NOVA TV, told BIRN that he suspected that an attack on him on Wednesday, when a young man approached him in a Skopje restaurant, shouted "traitor" and spat in his face, was commissioned by a senior official of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party.

Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev has accused the leadership of the nationalist VMRO DPMNE party - led by Nikola Gruevski - of fomenting tension in Macedonia to prevent a peaceful transfer of power and save themselves from criminal prosecution.

"This is being done solely to protect their crimes," Zaev told the TV show "Otvoreno" ["Open"] on Thursday night.

Macedonian (FYROM) President Gjorge Ivanov on Wednesday announced he would not give opposition SDSM leader Zoran Zaev a mandate to put together a new government.

"Neither my conscience nor the Constitution allow me to do that," Ivanov said.

BIRN journalists have been targeted on social networks in Macedonia in connection to Tuesday's attacks on journalist and cameraman in Skopje who were beaten up while covering a pro-VMRO DPMNE rally.

After BIRN Macedonia journalists published news and tweeted about the attack some Twitter users with generic nicknames accused BIRN journalists of being traitors and mercenaries.