Former King Named Prime Minister of BulgariaSimeon II, the former child king forced into exile when the communists took over after World War II, was named prime minister of Bulgaria on Thursday.The popular ex-ruler, whose center-right National Movement won a landslide victory in June elections, will become the first former East European monarch to return to power. A distant relative of many European monarchs, including Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Simeon has said that restoring the throne to this Balkan republic is not on his agenda. He will form a new government within 10 days, party leaders announced. The National Movement's floor leader in parliament, Plamen Panayotov, announced the decision to name Simeon prime minister Thursday after a meeting with President Petar Stoyanov. He said the party unanimously approved Simeon's candidacy for the post on June 23. Simeon returned from exile in April to form his party, which won broad support on a promise to end poverty, unemployment and other woes that engulfed Bulgaria after the demise of communism in 1989. On the wave of great expectations, Simeon's party gained 120 of the 240 seats in the unicameral legislature, just one seat short of a simple majority. Simeon was crowned king of Bulgaria at the age of 6 in 1943 after the sudden death of his father, King Boris, but lost his throne in a 1946 referendum widely believed to have been rigged by the communists. He was only 9 when he was forced into exile and fled with his mother, Queen Ioanna, to Egypt. Slim and bearded, the 64-year-old father of five first returned to Bulgaria in 1996. |
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