Bulgaria President to Address Nation about Early Elections

Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev is to address the nation live on television at 10 am on Thursday.

Plevneliev's address, which will be aired live by the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), is to name concrete steps to be taken by the outgoing center-right GERB government and the Parliament in connection with the demands of protesters.

The sitting of the Consultative Council on National Security on Tuesday resulted in an agreement to hold early elections.

The date of the early elections is to be pointed out by Plevneliev in his Thursday statement.

Center-right party GERB and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) have already returned the mandate to form an interim government and Plevneliev is expected to offer the mandate to the third biggest party in Parliament, the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (DPS) on Friday.

DPS is also expected to turn down the proposal to form an interim government, after which Plevneliev will have to form a caretaker government, issue a decree for the dissolution of Parliament and name a date for the elections in the same document.

Plevneliev's address in Parliament is to be attended by Bulgaria's new Patriarch Neofit and representatives of the foreign diplomatic missions in Bulgaria.