Bulgaria` s ex-king Simeon II went to ground in his former royal palace Tuesday as he prepared the tough task of forming a stable government following his historic weekend election victory.
But a senior aide said Bulgaria was unlikely to have a new government for at least a month, after Simeon` s National Movement (NMS II) won a landslide in the Sunday ballots. In addition the 64-year-old former monarch, a relative of Britain` s Queen Elizabeth II, appears set to stay out of the cabinet himself, the aide said.
There has been intense speculation about whether Simeon, who has swept back onto his country` s political stage after 55 years in exile, will actually become prime minister. But the aide cast doubt on the possibility of Simeon, an accomplished businessman but a political novice, becoming the first king ever to become a democratically-elected government head.
` This possibility is not completely ruled out, but it is unlikely,` said Ognian Gerdzhikov, legal for the NMS II, which secured 120 votes in the 240-seat parliament Sunday. ` It is one of the variables which is possible .. but it is not among the most probable,` he told AFP.
On Tuesday Simeon, who was forced into exile in 1946 and has spent most of his life as a consultant in Spain, was holed up in his Vrania palace in the Sofia suburbs, where he used to play as a child. His aides said the ex-king was preparing to take part ` in the coming days` in negotiations on forming a new coalition to run the impoverished Balkan country.
` We will start negotiations with all sides represented in parliament. I think there should be a government in a month or a month and a half,` said Gerdzhikov in an interview.
Across town the ousted Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) of defeated Prime Minister Ivan Kostov, called a meeting to discuss their future after the unprecedented rout. Kostov, who has blamed the defeat on painful reforms implemented in the impoverished country ove the last four years, has faced pressure to quit as party leader in the wake of the vote.
Analysts say his resignation could make it easier for the UDF to discuss sharing power with the NMS II. Kostov was openly critical of the former king during the election campaign. But he received firm support at the meeting.
` Bulgaria has not had in its recent history a more serious politician than Ivan Kostov who has managed to transform a ruined country into a country negotiating to join the European Union,` said outgoing Foreign Minister Nadejda Mikhailova. Simeon` s most likely coalition partners appear to be the UDF or the Turkish-minority Movement of Rights and Freedoms (MDL).
` We are completely open to a coalition, and we are not committed to any one particular person and have not predefined with whom this coalition should be,` said Gerdzhikov. The European Union meanwhile said it was watching developments in Sofia.
` We hope Bulgaria will maintain its efforts and the quality of its preparations in view of EU membership,` said Jean-Christophe Filori, spokesman for EU enlargement commissioner Gunther Verheugen. ` We even express the wish that these reforms that are necessary for EU accession be maintained and even accelerated,` he added.
But another EU source expressed concern at the election result. ` There are clearly some worries, because we are always a bit afraid that very demagogic promises lead to disappointments and disillusions, and don` t help really the necessary reforms to be carried out,` he said.
` Kostov has done a good job. What he has done was brave and courageous because it was not popular.`
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