According to the monthly political and economic index of Gallup International released on Sunday, the public confidence in Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has reached its lowest level since the beginning of his term in January 2012.

This is also one of the lowest levels of confidence in the presidential institution in historical terms.

In May, only 23 % of the respondents expressed confidence in Plevneliev, while mistrust stood at 66 %.

The confidence in the government was slightly higher (25 %), but continued to decrease, while mistrust, which stood at 64 %, continued to increase.

Traditionally, the level of confidence remained the lowest in parliament (16 %), with mistrust rising to 75 %.

In the event of early parliamentary elections, 24.5 % of the respondents would vote for the largest ruling party GERB, while the largest opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will be second with 12.4 % of the votes.

The other parties passing the electoral threshold of 4 % would be the second largest opposition Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) with 5.3 % of the votes, followed by the junior coalition partner Reformist Bloc (RB) and the party supporting the coalition government Patriotic Front (PF) with respectively 4.8 % and 4.3 % of the votes.

More than one third of the respondents (36.9 %) said they would not vote.

The majority of Bulgarians (59 %) continue to be pessimistic about the country's development, saying that Bulgaria is heading for the worse, with only 22 % thinking the country is heading for the better.

The survey was held between May 13 to 19 among 819 Bulgarians.