Ex-king in search of a coalition

Bulgarians voted for Simeon II. Now he must try to deliver prosperity

Nick Thorpe in Sofia
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday June 19 2001 02.02 BST

Bulgaria's former king began his search for a coalition ally yesterday after an election victory that left his newly formed political party just one vote short of an absolute parliamentary majority. He said he would take his time.

"This should be considered very carefully," ex-King Simeon II said after meeting Charles Magee, head of the observer mission monitoring Sunday's poll for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Mr Magee said the observers were "very satisfied" with the election.

Simeon of Saxe Coburg Gotha, a distant relative of the Queen, is the first former monarch in eastern Europe to return to power - though not the throne - since the fall of communism. For years he lived in exile in Spain.

Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic. The president has limited power, and most executive power is in the hands of the prime minister.

Nikolai Vasilev, head of Simeon's economic team, said: "The basic question for him is to decide whether he will become prime minister." The alternative would be to remain behind the scenes.

With 99% of the vote counted, the National Movement for Simeon II, the party he founded only two months ago, had 120 parliamentary seats, one short of an absolute majority. Results from abroad could still tip the balance.

Only three other parties made it over the 4% threshold. The conservative United Democratic Forces (UDF) polled 18%, the Alliance for Bulgaria, led by the Socialist party, got 17%, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, representing mainly the Turkish and Roma minorites, got 7%.

President Petar Stoyano congratulated the former king. The election "consolidated Bulgaria's image as a democratic state," said the president, a member of the defeated UDF.

Simeon hopes to bring the UDF into a coalition government whose goals would be stable economic growth, EU and Nato membership and the eradication of corruption.

Mr Stoyanov is a popular president, and plans to run for re-election in October. The former king planned to run for president himself, but the constitutional court ruled that he was ineligible, not having been resident in Bulgaria for five years.

As leader of the winning party, Simeon should logically be prime minister. But he has no political experience, and might prefer a UDF figure for that post, such as the mayor of Sofia, Stefan Sofiyanski.

Useful links
Government of Bulgaria
Sofia Echo
Bulgaria Online election watch