European Elections started in the Netherlands and the UK today and tomorrow continue in Ireland and the Czech Republic. Elections will be held on May 25 in Latvia, Malta and Slovakia while in Bulgaria and the rest of the EU countries they will take place on Sunday – May 26.

Trend's latest study confirms that erosion in support for GERB (31.5%) has stopped and the ruling party continues to have slight advantage over BSP (30.4%). Sociologists from the agency, however, believe it was more correct to talk about practical equality, as the outcome would mostly depend on voter turnout. Third comes MRF with 12.8% of support and 5.8% support for VMRO-BNM places it close to the entry threshold of the European Parliament (5.88%).

The results of an Alfa Research poll are much different. It shows GERB had 31.1 per cent of support while BSP had 26.6 per cent. But also according to this agency, the third place is for MRF (13.9%) and the fourth goes to VMRO-BNM (6%).

Among the last statements made in BSP’s election campaign, one should point out complaints that the party was a subject to police, administrative and economic pressure immediately before the election.

The ruling GERB party has not yet replied to this complaint and their criticism towards the main opposition party BSP has mostly focused on the idea of ​​the Socialists for a unified European minimum wage, which GERB calls populism.

MRF leader Mustafa Karadayi urged supporters of the movement to vote for a "change in nationalistic government power" on May 26, thus contributing to Europe’s quest for overcoming xenophobia, hatred, division and opposition.

Today VMRO-BNM officially closes its election campaign with a folk concert in the town of Elin Pelin, near Sofia.

National Ombudsman Maya Manolova has asked the CEC to provide a manual vote count of the machine voting results to ensure its credibility and avoid doubts about manipulation of the election.

English: Alexander Markov