Bulgaria's new parliament accepted Friday the resignation of the outgoing right-wing government after its landslide election defeat by ex-king Simeon II, tipped to be the country's next prime minister.
Members of the National Movement Simeon II (NMS II), which hold exactly half of the 240 parliamentary seats, are to meet with President Petar Stoyanov later Friday for the first official talks over forming a new government.
NMS II has already announced its plans to pair up with the Turkish minority Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), whose 21 seats would give a future coalition a majority in parliament.
Just over 160 deputies accepted the resignation of outgoing government, led by the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), which now holds just 51 seats in the parliament.
The party turned down offers to join forces with the ex-king's coalition and said it preferred to go into opposition.
Simeon II has yet to announce whether he will accept the post of prime minister, as urged by his likely coalition partners the MRF.
In an interview published last weekend in Madrid, where he spent many years in exile, the former king said he had little choice but to accept the prime minister's job, but he has refused to confirm the statement at home in Bulgaria.
Simeon, who was exiled by the communists in the 1940s, returned home earlier this year initially with a bid to become president, which was thwarted by a court ruling.
He chose instead to form a movement which would stand in legislative elections as a means for him to reenter the country's political life -- SOFIA (AFP)
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