Predictions for the end of the world based on the calendar of the Ancient Maya might have influenced the New Year's address of Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.

This might be the case because of a bizarre sentence in Parvanov's last New Year's speech, which might have referred not just to the effects of the debt crisis in Europe, but also to the apocalypse predictions based on the Maya calendar.

"Let's get filled with hope that even the darkest forebodings will remain warnings only," the Bulgarian head of state said in his wishes for 2012, without specifying what kind of "darkest forebodings" he might have in mind exactly.

His New Year's midnight address, however, did focus on stressing the consequences of the debt crisis in the euro zone, which certainly has had a tangibly devastating effect on the European economies, whereas the Maya calendar predictions remain highly dubious. So Parvanov was probably referring not to the end of the world but to the forecasts for the ultimate collapse and demise of the euro, and, respectively – of the European Union itself.

"2011 was hard for us Bulgarians, for Europe, and for the world. That is why the holiday messages of state and political leaders [around the world] featured more than ever messages for compassion and solidarity towards those who suffered the most from the crisis," the Bulgarian President emphasized.

It is yet to be seen whether Parvanov's last New Year's presidential speech (his second and last term expires in 20 days) will remain "the last" such address ever, before his successor Rosen Plevneliev could make his first address on New Year's Eve before 2013.

Plevneliev, however, appears to stand good chances for that based on the more and more frequent statements by researchers that the Maya calendar has been interpreted incorrectly, and that it denotes no end to the world in December 2012 but the end of an era, and the start of a new one.

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