The political situation is heating up in Bulgaria ahead of the presidential election, which will be held on 23 October 2011.

On 16 June, the Sofia News Agency reports, the government defeated a no-confidence motion. The motion was proposed by the opposition Socialist party (or at least the parliamentary opposition as the president is a Socialist and Bulgaria is currently experiencing a period of cohabitation). The motion was motivated by the government’s health policy.

Anyway, the motion was easily defeated. The government (the ruling GERB party) won 124 votes and the opposition (Socialists and Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS) won 70 votes.