Dilma Rousseff, a former left-wing guerrilla fighter with a Bulgarian Father, has moved a step closer Wednesday to becoming the next Brazilian President.

The centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) endorsed in principle the candidacy of current Brazilian President Lula's chief of staff, Rousseff, for the October 2010 Presidential elections.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – Lula – has always backed Rousseff’s candidacy. "Both parties by mutual agreement reached a preliminary commitment toward the presidential election in 2010," the PMDB said in a joint statement on Wednesday with Lula's Workers' Party.

The deal needs to be approved by conventions of both parties. Under the accord, the PMDB, which is already part of Lula's governing coalition, would select Rousseff's running mate for vice-president and participate in drafting her government platform.

Rousseff was born in Belo Horizonte on December 14, 1947 to Bulgarian engineer and poet Pedro Rousseff (born Petar Russev) and schoolteacher Dilma Coimbra Silva.

Pedro was an active member of the Bulgarian Communist Movement in the 1920s and fled Bulgaria in 1929 due to political persecution, settling in France, where he lived until the end of World War II. After the war he moved to Argentina and later to Brazil, where he married Dilma Coimbra, with whom he had two children: Dilma and Igor.

Rousseff herself has been involved with leftist organizations since her youth. After the 1964 rightist coup in Brazil, Rousseff founded and led a leftist underground organization called Palmares, and joined the resistance movement against the military dictatorship.

Later she was captured by the political police, and was sent to prison for three years - between 1970 and 1973, where she was severely tortured.

After she was freed, Dilma Rousseff studied economics, and now holds a Ph. D. in this field. In 2003 she was appointed Energy Minister of Brazil by President Lula da Silva.