SOFIA (Islamweb & Agencies) - Bulgaria's former King Simeon II, the first ex-monarch to regain political power after the downfall of communism in eastern Europe, agreed on Thursday to be the country's next prime minister. (Read photo caption below). Parliament was expected to approve Simeon's nomination and the new government on July 24.
The prime ministership is the most powerful post in Bulgaria, a Balkan state of some eight million people bordering troubled Macedonia as well as Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania and Turkey.
The tall, balding, bearded Simeon was banished from Bulgaria in 1946 at the age of nine after a rigged referendum abolished the monarchy. He had acceded to the throne on the sudden death of his father in 1943.
He spent most of his life as a businessman in Madrid before forming his political movement in April.
Simeon's first task is to complete talks on a coalition government and create an efficient team from his movement, a motley collection of lawyers and television stars, and young economists and bankers who began their careers abroad.
NDS won 120 parliamentary seats in the June 17 election, one short of an outright majority. It plans to form a coalition government and one ally is all but certain, the ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which has 21 seats.
The Union of Democratic Forces, which had held power, met the NDS late on Thursday but talks were inconclusive. Another round is scheduled for Monday but it appeared increasingly likely that the UDF would stay in opposition.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Bulgarian former King Simeon II looks on during his meeting with President Petar Stoyanov in Sofia on July 12, 2001. Simeon II, the first ex-monarch to regain political power in post-communist eastern Europe, was nominated as the country's next prime minister after his movement won a June 17 general election. (Dimitar Dilkoff/Reuters)