BULGARIA: Socialist leader Sergey Stanishev was approved as Bulgaria's new prime minister yesterday, but his one-vote victory left him facing a battle for survival and threatened his Balkan nation with continued instability as it strives for EU entry in 2007.
Mr Stanishev, whose party failed to claim an overall majority in last month's election win, faced an immediate test of his credibility in a parliamentary vote to approve his cabinet. It was expected to take place late last night, after hours of debate.
Parliament approved Mr Stanishev by 120 to 119 votes, leaving him in a precarious position in a chamber bitterly divided after weeks of wrangling over the new government.
His proposed cabinet comprised 13 Socialists and five members of the mainly ethnic-Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedom (MRF), after supporters of former king Simeon Saxe-Coburg unexpectedly pulled out of the coalition at the last moment.
"Bulgaria has no time to lose, no time for political games," Mr Stanishev told parliament, amid warnings from Brussels that accession could be postponed until 2008 unless a new government was formed quickly to implement crucial reforms.
"We have to work hard to achieve the European future of our country."
Lyutvi Mestan, deputy chairman of the MRF, said: "There can be no stable government without the Socialists and the MRF."
If deputies were to reject Mr Stanishev's cabinet, the Bulgarian president would be obliged to give former prime minister Saxe-Coburg an opportunity to form a coalition, as leader of the second-biggest party in parliament.
However, he would struggle to win approval, given the opposition of the Socialists and MRF, making the possibility of repeat elections a distinct possibility.
"Stanishev's cabinet is unlikely to fulfil its whole four-year mandate with a majority of 120 or 121 deputies," said political analyst Antony Todorov. "He will either find ways to broaden it or will have to quit power earlier."
Several commentators said early elections were likely, unless the main parties set aside their wrangling. That looked improbable last night, as a row broke out over whether the new prime minister had the right to vote on approving his own government.
"Stanishev should not vote for the cabinet because he is no longer a deputy," insisted Ekaterina Mihaylova, a right-wing politician.