SIMEON II NAMED PRIME MINISTER OF BULGARIA

Politics | July 12, 2001, Thursday // 00:00

Simeon Saxe-Coburg was officially nominated Bulgaria`s Prime Minister on Thursday morning.

The decision was announced by the party`s floor leader in parliament, Plamen Panayotov, after a meeting with President Stoyanov.

The Parliamentary Group of the Simeon II National Movement chose unanimously the leader Simeon II as Prime Minister of Bulgaria on July 23, 2001.
Simeon II will form Bulgaria`s next government after his party won a landslide victory in last month`s elections.

`With great emotion but with my typical sense of responsibility, and having in mind the trust that the voters gave me on June 17, I accept this proposal. Everybody realizes that this is an exceedingly daunting and intricate task, but with good will and everybody`s help and mindful only of our people`s well being, I hope that we will achieve what we promised voters`, Saxe-Coburg said in a brief statement. President Stoyanov said he would hand the prime minister-designate a decree mandating him to form a cabinet on Sunday, July 15. Within seven days after that, Simeon will have to propose a structure and line-up of his future cabinet. The head of state will then issue a decree asking the National Assembly to take a vote on the prime minister nomination.

Speaker of Parliament Ognyan Gerdzhikov said he would call an extraordinary sitting of Parliament at 10 a.m. on July 24, at which a resolution on a new structure and composition of the Council of Ministers will be put to the vote.

Simeon returned from exile just three months ago to form his party, The Simeon II National Movement, which won an impressive victory in last month`s election on a promise to put an end to poverty, unemployment and other woes that engulfed Bulgaria after the demise of communism.
Simeon did not run as a candidate in the elections, but because of his party`s strong gains, he can still become prime minister under Bulgarian law.

He was crowned king of Bulgaria at the age of 6 in 1943 after the sudden death of his father, but lost his throne in a 1946 referendum widely believed to have been rigged by the communists. He fled to Egypt with his mother.

The 64-year-old father of five children first returned to Bulgaria in 1996 after the fall of communism. In exile, he worked mostly in Spain as a management consultant.

Simeon has said he favours a broad coalition government with those who share his priorities: speedy economic growth; endeavours to join the European Union and NATO and a resolute fight against corruption.

Simeon II National Movement has been holding talks about a possible coalition with the Union of Democratic Forces and with the Turks Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a predominantly ethnic Turkish party.

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