There is still a long time to go until the presidential elections due in October, yet politicians have been talking about them more and more often. Some ten days ago the leader of the ruling GERB party and Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov stated that neither he nor his second in command inside the party Tsvetan Tsvenatov would be standing for president. Two days ago, at a national meeting of GERB, Borissov once again broached the issue asking whether nominating a presidential candidate at all was worth it, as he or she might dissociate himself from the nominating party, as current President Rosen Plevneliev did not long ago when he stated he did not agree with Boyko Borissov that there was a plan to destabilize the Balkans. If nothing else, the statement made by the Prime Minister made it clear GERB would not support Plevneliev for a second term of office and could decide on nominating a presidential candidate outside the party. Hours after this last statement by Borissov, his GERB party deputy Tsvetan Tsvetanov said the party would have its own presidential nomination after all. The statements by the two top figures in the ruling party show that presidential elections are now on the agenda and open for discussion. GERB is expected to come up with a name no earlier than June, until then any statement made is just testing the waters.

GERB's coalition partner the rightist Reformist Bloc also seems to be testing the waters. Meglena Kuneva, chairperson of the Bulgaria for Citizens Movement announced that the reformists would be looking for a single presidential candidate and floated the idea of nominating the co-chair of the Reformist Bloc parliamentary group Naiden Zelenogorski. Yet, reaching agreement on a single nomination by the reformists is a difficult task seeing as for quite some time one of the Reformist Bloc formations - the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria party - is part of the bloc but is, at the same time in opposition. The reformists say they may come up with a single nomination at the end of summer, provided he or she is not leader of any of the parties.

Out of the blue, on Sunday ABV leader Georgi Parvanov, former leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and ex-president, stated at a congress of the nationalist formation VMRO, that it was time the patriotic forces in the country united and called for a single candidate for president who would be a believer in “authentic, enlightened and modern nationalism and patriotism”. Back in January, Parvanov stated the ABV would be a categorical alternative to the policy pursued by the current president and that it was getting ready for broad-based consultations for finding a consensual nomination. In Parvanov's words it would be a bad thing if at the coming presidential elections, left and right were to, once again, engage in power games - logically this means a consensual nomination by all centrist political forces. Yet in the centre, things are currently extremely complicated, in view of the split in the movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and the establishment of the new party DOST by DPS dissidents. For years the DPS has invariably tried to act as a balance between right and left at presidential elections, ultimately tipping the balance one way or the other. This time this might not be the case because it looks like the votes for DOST party, which is said to hold a quarter of the votes until now cast for the DPS, will be the exact opposite to the votes for the DPS.

The presidential elections due in the autumn will take place with a disunited right, left and centre. There is still plenty of time, but it is evident even now that the race for a new head of state will be a battle as difficult as it is compelling.

English version: Milena Daynova