Stefan Sofiyanski

Infobox Prime Minister


country=the Republic of Bulgaria
name=Stefan Antonov Sofiyanski
Стефан Антонов Софиянски
nationality=Bulgarian
caption=
order=Acting Prime Minister of Bulgaria
term_start =February 13, 1997
term_end =May 21, 1997
deputy=
predecessor =Zhan Videnov
successor =Ivan Kostov
birth_date =birth date and age|1951|11|7
birth_place =Sofia, Bulgaria
death_date =
death_place =
party=Democratic Forces
constituency=
spouse=
religion=
footnotes=

Stefan Antonov Sofiyanski ( _bg. Стефан Антонов Софиянски) (born November 7, 1951 in Sofia) has been a leading member of the Union of Democratic Forces in Bulgaria. He served as interim Prime Minister in 1997 and was a three term Mayor of Sofia.

A statistics graduate from the Karl Marx Higher Institute of Economics, Sofiyanski held a number of positions in the Ministry of Communications and Information during communist rule. He served in the cabinet of Filip Dimitrov and became one of the leading members of the UDF. He was elected Mayor of Sofia in 1995 and served in this position, being re-elected twice - in 1999 and 2003, until 2005 when he resigned to become a parliamentary deputy. He was appointed as caretaker PM by President Petar Stoyanov in 1997 until such time as Ivan Kostov could form a government.

In 2001 he announced that he was to leave the UDF and form his own party [http://www.bulgaria2net.com/about/news/07112001.html] . He ultimately formed the Union of Free Democrats and, although it initially remained a part of the UDF, Sofiyanski and his party have since thrown their lot in with the Bulgarian People's Union. On Jan 1, 2007 he joined the European Parliament as one of Bulgaria's interim members until the elections in May of the same year.

External links

* [http://www.omda.bg/engl/personalia/stef_sof_engl.htm Biography of Sofiyanski]