Bulgarian Socialists to Decide at Referendum on Left-wing Alliance for Presidential Vote

Bulgarian main opposition Socialists will decide at a party referendum with which political parties to join forces for the forthcoming presidential elections, the party’s new leader, Korneliya Ninova, has said.

“I think that we should seek a broad alliance on the left,” Ninova told Nova TV on Monday.

Ninova added that she didn’t see Ivaylo Kalfin as a viable nomination.

Kalfin, a member of left-wing party Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) and former Deputy Prime Minister and Labour Minister in the current centre-right coalition government led by Boyko Borisov, stepped down earlier this month as ABV said it was withdrawing support for the cabinet. Kalfin’s move has fuelled speculation about his potential nomination as a left-wing candidate.

In the last presidential elections held in 2011 Kalfin, nominated by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), lost in a run-off vote to Rosen Plevneliev nominated by Borisov’s GERB party.

Plevneliev said last week that he wouldn't seek a second term in the presidential elections expected in autumn 2016.

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