Bulgaria's ruling centrist-right GERB is more than likely to call for a snap parliamentary election, Sergey Stanishev, interim leader of the Party of European Socialists, has predicted.

The next parliamentary election in the Balkan country is scheduled for 2013. October's presidential and local elections in Bulgaria have been widely seen as a success for the ruling formation.

If the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) wins the parliamentary election, it will cancel GERB's recent amendment that increased the retirement age in the country by three months each year until 2014, Stanishev declared.

According to the left-wing politician, the retirement reform will force the Bulgarians "to work until they die".

Stanishev, a former Bulgarian Prime Minister (2005-2009), further described the situation in the country as "extremely difficult." Speaking in the Black Sea city of Varna, the socialist leader addressed the problems of the troubled state-owned railways (BDZ), claiming that the government's main aim is the privatization of the company's freight services.

BSP's leader also believes that the government's decision for the concession of Port Varna will have disastrous consequences for both the city and the port.