These days Socialist leader Mihail Mikov announced that his party would seek support for challenging the new government debt of 8 billion euro in the Constitutional Court. The Socialists expect support from the ABV left-wing party and the newly formed leftist party "Bulgarian Spring," as well as the Ataka nationalist party. This support is likely to grow into coalitions before the local elections in the autumn. Recently, local organizations of the Bulgarian Socialist Party have received freedom to enter into coalitions with other leftist forces. Despte the fact that ABV supports the rightist government of GERB, it is on a way to coopertion with the socialists,while the "Bulgarian Spring" said BSP, ABV nd the Ataka Party. This way, months before the local elections, leftist opposition alliances with nationalist flavor have strted to emerge. The only exception is the opposition Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which generally likes playing alone. The situation in the right wing is different. The GERB party that is currently ruling in coalition with the Reform Bloc plans to participte alone in the local elections and says it would hold a convincing victory. The Reform Bloc believes, however, that in the second round of the elections it will join forces with GERB and the Patriotic Front Coalition, which is now in parliament and generally supports the government. But despite the plans announced by major political forces, the picture of the local elections is still too vague and may change. Bulgarian local elections have specific characteristics, according to sociologists and no conclusions related to the balance of power at national level should be drawn. For sure the elections will be a serious challenge for the politicians. The ruling GERB will defend their positions alone, without political support that it currently enjoys in the executive power. If GERB's expectations did not come true, the party would be at risk of facing new early elections. As a young formation the Reform Bloc will aim at good performance in major regional centers, especially in the city of Sofia, where the formation has traditional support. The local vote would also show whether the BSP was recovering from the defeat in the last parliamentary elections. All these give reasons to expect a close and intense election race in the autumn.