The Earliest Inhabitants
The territory of Bulgaria has been inhabited since the earliest historical times: the Stone Age and the Chalcolithic Age. The Bulgarian land reveals signs of human presence as far back as the end of the early Pal eolith (700 000 to 100 000 B.C.). Archaeological excavations have extracted from the entrails of Bulgarian land indisputable proofs of human life continuity - flint kernel items, blades, points and scrapers, fire and hunting traces have been discovered in many Bulgarian caves.

Archaeological discoveries from that time have been made near Karlovo, in the region of the towns of Nova Zagora, Veliko Turnovo, Vidin, Sofia, Teteven, Troyan and in the Rhodope Mountains.

Rich soil and favourable climatic conditions led to the emergence of arable farming and stock-breeding. This had marked future radical turn of the development of the human society. An early processing and use of the metals - copper, bronze alloys and gold has been proved by the discoveries in the north-eastern part of the country. The world oldest processed gold, dug out from Varna necropolis is just one of them.

The Thracians
During the Bronze Age the present-day Bulgarian lands were inhabited by the Thracians. The first mentioning of the Thracians is found in the old Greek sources. Thracians were mentioned for the first time by Homer. They are the first ethnically verified population of the Bulgarian lands. Iron was the underlying foundation of the Thracian civilization. The material power of the Thracians sprang from the arable farming and animal husbandry, which kept developing under the impact of the improved irons tools and other instruments. They were engaged in agriculture and stockbreeding, and left evidence of a rich culture (the Vulchitrun gold treasure). Wheat and wine remain as major agrarian products. Sheep and, most of all, horses brought fame to the stock breeders. Pottery making, metal production and metal-working were very well developed. The first Thracian state unions emerged in the 11th-6th centuries BC, which flourished in the 7th-6th centuries BC. The Thracian statehood was well developed, but not strong enough to oppose the invasion of the Roman Empire. In the 1st century BC their lands were conquered by Rome, and after the 5th century AD they were incorporated in the Byzantine Empire. The Thracian lands became the remote frontier, suffering from invasions of Huns, Goths, Avars and other barbarian tribes. The development of the Thracian art and culture has been proved by many archaeological discoveries. The Thracians were later gradually assimilated by the Slavs who settled in the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th century AD.

The Slave and Proto - Bulgarians
The Great Migration of the Peoples" between 4th and 7th centuries brought to the Balkans Slavs. They were first to disrupt the tranquillity of the Eastern Roman Empire - Byzantium, whose capital city was Constantinople, and solidify their presence as an important military and political force in the Balkan provinces of the Empire.

In the late decades of the seventh century strong ally in their permanent fights against Byzantium appeared out of the north-eastern plains - the Proto-Bulgarians- an ethnic community of Turkic origin. They came from the steppes of the Central Asia and originated from the Altaic linguistic and ethnic group, early located in South-Western Siberia.

The Proto-Bulgarians soon became an important factor in the history of the Balkans. Kubrat, a shrewd and energetic ruler from the Proto-Bulgarian clan Dulo took the advantage to unify all Proto-Bulgarians in a powerful military and tribal union north of the Caucasus mountains.

After the death of Kubrat, the tribes, led by his several sons moved in different directions-one group to the Volga river, another - west to the present days Italy, third one - the western part of the Balkans.

The third son of Kubrat - Asparouh moved to the territory of the present-day Northeastern Bulgaria, where his people encountered Slavs, who already settled there. The common enemy, the Byzantine Empire, made them unite in the struggle for survival. Their anti-Byzantine alliance yielded the First Bulgarian Kingdom. In alliance with the Slavs they formed the Bulgarian State, which was recognised by the Byzantine Empire in 681 AD. Khan Asparouh stood at the head of that state and Pliska was made its capital.

Under the rule of Khan Tervel (700-718 AD), Bulgaria expanded its territory and turned into a major political force.

Medieval Bulgaria
Bulgaria is one of the oldest states in Europe and the first Slavic state formation. After periods of progress and destabilization the Bulgarian State reached its greatest success in fighting against Byzantium under khan Kroum (r.803-814). Then it encompassed many new lands, populated by Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians, in its territory. Under Khan Kroum (803-814 AD) Bulgaria bordered with the empire of Carl the Great to the west, and to the east the Bulgarian troops reached the walls of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. But Kroum left a bright trial in the Bulgarian history with his actions as the country's first legislator, as well. He created first written laws of the Bulgarian state. The new state of Slavs, Proto-Bulgarians and Thracians needed one common language and one religion to solidify the basement of the statehood. Stretched between the western enemies and the pressure from the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarian state was pressed to make choice between the Catholicism and the Orthodox Christianity. In 870 AD, during the rule ofPrince Boris I Michail (852-889 AD), famous with his wisdom and talent of great statesman, the Eastern Orthodox Christianity was introduced as official state religion. This act abolished the ethnic differences between Proto-Bulgarians and Slavs, and started building a unified Bulgarian nation. After adopting Christianity, the influence of the Byzantine Empire grew. This is evidenced by the ossuary in the Bachkovo Monastery (1083 AD). Bulgarian church music was created.

The evangelization of the Bulgarian people is inseparable from the inception of the Slavonic script and literature, from the work of the first Slavonic teachers, the brothers Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) and Methodius, who in the second half of the 9th century created and disseminated the Cyrillic alphabet.

The disciples of the two brothers - Clement and Nahum - created two main literary centers - one in Ohrid, present Macedonia, and another one, in the Bulgarian capital Pliska. They developed a rich educational and literary activity. This two centers not only provided books for divine services in Bulgarian language, but contributed substantially to the intellectual, spiritual and cultural development of the first Bulgarian state. From Bulgaria the Cyrillic script spread to other Slavic lands as well - present-day Serbia and Russia. The cities of Ochrida and Pliska, and subsequently the new capital city Veliki Preslav as well, became centres of Bulgarian culture, and of Slav culture as a whole.

The reign of the Boris' son King Simeon I - Simeon the Great (893-927 AD) marked the "Golden Age of Bulgarian Culture", and the territory of his state reached the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. This was time of expansion of the Bulgarian kingdom's territory after a number of successful military and diplomatic actions, development of the culture and flourishing of the statehood.

During the reign of Simeon's successors, Bulgaria was weakened by internal struggles, the heresy of the priest Bogomil spread and influenced the teachings of the Cathars and Albigenses in Western Europe.

After Simeon the Great stronger Byzantium took over several parts of Bulgaria, and later on took full control over the country. In 1018, after prolonged wars, Bulgaria was conquered by the Byzantine Empire.

The tyranny of the Byzantine rule and intolerable taxes provoked many responses of the Bulgarians. From the very first years under Byzantine rule, the Bulgarians started fighting for their freedom.

In 1186, the uprising led by two boyars, the brothers Assen and Peter, overthrew the domination of the Byzantine Empire. The Second Bulgarian Kingdom was founded, and Turnovo became the new capital. After 1186, Bulgaria was initially ruled by Assen, and after that by Peter. In the years that followed Byzantines suffered many defeats in the southern Bulgarian lands.

The earlier power of Bulgaria was restored during the reign of their youngest brother, Kaloyan (1197-1207), and during the reign of King Ivan Assen II (1218 -1241) the Second Bulgarian Kingdom reached its greatest upsurge: political hegemony was established in Southeastern Europe, the territory of the country spread to the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea, the economy and culture developed.

Bulgaria reached a new peak, which lasted until the end of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (1186-1396). The schools of literature and the arts in Turnovo developed the traditions in Bulgarian culture, which is evidenced by the frescoes in the Boyana Church, the churches in Turnovo, in the Zemen Monastery, the churches hewn into the rocks near Ivanovo, the miniatures in the Gospel that belonged to King Ivan Alexander, kept at the British Museum in London, and Manassiy's Chronicle. In 1235, the Head of the Bulgarian Church was given the title of Patriarch.

In the shadow of the Ottoman Empire
At the turn of the 13th century the decline of the Bulgarian state started under the threat of a new enemy - the Ottoman Turks. Despite the efforts of the kings, the irreversible process of feudal separation turned once mighty state into easy target for the much stronger Turks. The Bulgarian kings and local nobles, as well as the other Balkan rulers failed to demonstrate political farsightedness and to judge soberly the strength and potential of the common enemy. The strife among some of the boyars resulted in the division of Bulgaria into two kingdoms: the kingdoms of Vidin and Turnovo. This weakened the country and it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1396. The Bulgarian people, however, offered heroic resistance to the Ottoman Turks and in practice became one of the most serious barriers to their expansion into the heart of Europe.

The Turkish conquest severed Bulgaria from the European culture. The link with the all-Slavonic culture was also ruptured. From that point onwards there was a tangible retardation of the Bulgarian people in terms of economic, cultural and historical development.

In the years that followed the Bulgarians sought to tie up their liberation and resistance actions with the wars waged by the European Christian states and their coalitions against the Ottoman Empire.

For nearly five centuries Bulgaria was under Ottoman domination. The initial years were characterised by sporadic and unorganised attempts to win freedom. Later the appearance of the clandestine fighters, the "haydouts", made the emergence of a well-organised national liberation movement possible. Many uprisings and the haidouk movements was initiated as a spontaneous form of armed resistance. Haidouk detachments, led by brave and selfless Bulgarian men and women became active in many parts of the country as early as the mid 15th century.

The Revival of the Bulgarian people was incepted in the 18th century. The ideas of Enlightenment and democratic revolutions penetrated the Balkans, too, to create a natural endeavour towards profound economic and spiritual changes, towards political liberation.

In the early 18th century the decay of the Turkish military and feudal system was substantially exacerbated. The military defeats of the Empire in a sequence of wars against Russia, Austria and the European coalitions shook the foundations of the Ottoman state vigorously. This served as an impetus for the development of the industry and the urban economy in the Bulgarian lands. The Bulgarian bourgeoisie, which was the vehicle of the economic progress in the epoch of the Revival, was the first to grasp the historical need for new ideas that would promote the national upsurge of the Bulgarians.

The formation of the Bulgarian nation and the development of Bulgarian education started in the beginning of the 18th century. One impetus for this was the work of the monk Paissiy of Hilendar History of Slavs and Bulgarians, written in 1762. This remarkable work served its historical purpose - to become the first national programme for political and spiritual emancipation of the Bulgarians.

A powerful manifestation of the Bulgarian nation in the 19th century was the struggle for ecclesiastic independence from the Greek Patriarchate. This struggle is considered as the second integral part of the national liberation movement. The ideas of national freedom led to the establishing of an autonomous Bulgarian national Church, and to the flourishing of education and culture. Some of the key figures during the Bulgarian National Revival were Zachary Zograph, Nikolay Pavlovich, Stanislav Dospevski, and many others. That period marked also the beginning of the first amateur theatre performances.

In the mid of the 19th century the Bulgarian nation had already acquired political and economic self-confidence. It could not stand the constraints of a foreign state power, which, despite the half-way reforms, was heading for destruction.

The Bulgarian society became increasingly radical and the nation turned its eyes to the historical perspective of restoring the Bulgarian state. Many detachments had been organized and send from abroad to fight against Turks and to rise high the spirit and will for liberation of the Bulgarians.
The start of the organised revolutionary movement for liberation from Ottoman domination is associated with the work of Georgi Sava Rakovski (1821-1867) - a prominent writer and journalist, freedom fighter, founder and ideologist of the national-liberal liberation movement.

This period of armed struggle was a natural preparation for the new stage in the course of the national revolution - trough creation of a revolutionary organization. The activity of this organization was most directly associated with the colossi of the political and armed struggle at the time of Bulgarian National Revival - Lyuben Karavelov (1834-1879) - writer and journalist, leader and ideologist of the movement, Vasil Levski (1837 -1873) - strategist and ideologist of the movement and national hero and Hristo Botev (1848-1876) - poet and journalist, revolutionary, democrat, national hero

The high time of the armed struggle against Ottoman Empire was the April Uprising of 1876- the first significant and organised attempt at liberation from Ottoman domination. Ill prepared and organized, the April Uprising was predestinated to fail. Despite that it was the culmination of the Bulgarian National revolution, aimed not only at the political liberation of the Bulgarian nation, but at its social and economic emancipation as well. The uprising was brutally crushed and drowned in blood, but it drew the attention of the European countries to the Bulgarian national issues.

The Liberation came as a result of the victory of Russia over Turkey in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. On 3 March, 1878 a preliminary peace treaty was signed between Russia and Ottoman Empire in the Constantinople suburb of San Stefano. The Bulgarian State was restored, but national unity was not achieved. Thus Bulgaria re-acquired its own position on the political map of Europe, but still some of the territories, inhabited by Bulgarians remained under Turks or within the borders of the neighbouring countries. The former Bulgarian territories were divided into three: the Principality of Bulgaria was proclaimed - with Prince Alexander Battemberg at its head, Eastern Rumelia - with a Christian Governor appointed by the Sultan, while Thrace and Macedonia remained under the domination of the Ottoman Empire.


The Third Bulgarian State
After 1878, the first cultural and educational institutions in the Principality began to be built. The St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library was built in 1878, the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia opened its doors in 1888, and the Ivan Vazov National Theatre - in 1904. The first film was shown in Rousse in 1897.

The late 19th and the early 20th century were characterised by remarkable achievements in all fine arts. That was the period marked by the works of the Bulgarian poets and writers Ivan Vazov, Aleko Konstantinov, Dimcho Debelyanov, Pencho Slaveykov - the first Bulgarian nominated for Nobel Prize, Peyo Yavorov and many others. The artists Anton Mitov, Ivan Angelov, Ivan Mrkvicka, Yaroslav Veshin, B. Schatz and others created some of the most remarkable works of art during that time. The late 19th century also marked the beginning of Bulgarian professional musical culture. The first Bulgarian composers were Emanouil Manolov, Dimiter Christov and Georgi Atanassov-Maestro.

The restoration of the Bulgarian statehood in 1878 and the further development of the young Principality were inseparable from the deep-going historical process of European national state formation. The first Constitution was adopted in Turnovo on 16 April, 1879, which provided for equality of citizens before the law, universal suffrage (at that time only for males), broad local self-government, freedom of speech and convictions, inviolability of property. With a new Constitution and an elected Head of State - Prince Alexander Battenberg the Principality of Bulgaria rose for an independent development in the modern European world.

The decision for the fractionation of Bulgaria, taken at the Berlin Congress (1878), was never accepted by the people.
In 1885 the young Bulgarian Principality had stand successfully its first test - the unification with the autonomous (under Turkey) Eastern Roumelia province and the war with Serbia.

The decisions of 1878 triggered the Kresna-Razlog Uprising (1878-1879), which in 1885 led to the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. The Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising also broke out (1903).

Following favourable international developments the real independence of Bulgaria had been proclaimed on 22 September 1908 in Turnovo. Prince Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Bulgarian Prince since 1887, proclaimed Bulgaria's independence from Turkey and acquired the title "King of the Bulgarians".

Soon the Ottoman Empire as well as the Great Powers recognized the independence of the new Bulgarian kingdom.
The following years had been marked by a rapid economic growth, development of the infrastructure, flourishing of culture and education, internal and international solidification of the Bulgarian state.

This progress had been stopped by the three consecutive wars - The Balkan War (1912-13), Inter-Ally War (1913) and World War I (1914-18). The outcome of the three wars was lost of territories, inhabited by Bulgarians, heavy burden of reparations, famine. This crisis also suspended rapid economic growth prior to 1912.

Bulgaria took part in the Balkan War (1912) and fought together with Serbia and Greece for the freedom of Thrace and Macedonia. Bulgaria won that war, but in the subsequent war among the allies (1913) it was defeated by Romania, Turkey and by its earlier allies, who tore from her territories with a Bulgarian population.

The intervention of Bulgaria in World War I on the side of the Central Powers ended with a national catastrophe. In 1918, King Ferdinand abdicated in favour of his son Boris III. The Neuilly Peace Treaty of 1919 imposed severe provisions on Bulgaria: it lost its outlet on the Aegean Sea, Western Thrace became a part of Greece, Southern Dobroudja was annexed to Romania, and the territories around Strumica, Bosilegrad, Zaribrod and villages around Kula were given to the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom. (Southern Dobroudja was restored to Bulgaria by the Bulgarian-Romanian Treaty of 1940.)

The 1920s and 1930s were characterised with a continuing flourishing of Bulgarian culture. During that period Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistora, Zlatyu Boyadjiev, Dechko Uzunov and many other artists created remarkable works. The State Musical Academy was founded in 1921. The first steps of the art of Bulgarian ballet were made in 1928. Among the most prominent composers of that period were Pancho Vladigerov, Lyubomir Pipkov and Philip Koutev. Under the Old Sky, The Cairn and Graves without Crosses were among the best Bulgarian films in the 1920s and 1930s. The literary works of Elin Pelin, Yordan Yovkov, Geo Milev, Hristo Smirnenski, Elisaveta Bagryana, Assen Raztsvetnikov, Nikola Fournadjiev, Nikola Vaptsarov, and others, are brilliant examples of Bulgarian poetry and prose during that period.

Period between the two World wars had been marked by lack of stability, political unrest, uncertainty. The finale of this period had come with the end of the World War II when after several authoritarian non-party regimes the country lapsed into a grave crisis. The country leadership failed to resolve major domestic problems and to identify the right international landmarks. The Third Bulgarian State entered the crucial epoch.

In the early 1940s, Bulgaria led a policy in the interest of Germany and the Axis powers. Later the participation of Bulgarian cavalry units on the Eastern Front was discontinued. King Boris III supported the public pressure and did not allow the deportation of about 50,000 Bulgarian Jews.
In August 1943 King Boris III died and the regency of the young King Simeon II took over the governing of the country. On 5 September 1944, the Soviet Army entered Bulgaria and on 9 September1944, with the decisive support of the Soviet army, the fighters and the army overthrew the royal government and the Government of the Fatherland Front, headed by Kimon Georgiev, came to power.

In 1946 Bulgaria was proclaimed to be a People's Republic. The Queen-Mother, King Simeon ?? and Princess Maria-Louisa left Bulgaria for Egypt via Turkey.

The Post-war Decades
The Fatherland Front coalition won the referendum on the future form of government. On 15 September, 1946 Bulgaria was declared a republic.

By virtue of the agreement among the Great Powers Bulgaria, together with a part of Central and East-European countries remained under the control of Moscow. A Soviet model on the country's future development had been imposed: industrialization and state ownership in industry, collective ownership in agriculture, monopoly of the communist ideology. Bulgaria was incorporated in the organizations known as the Warsaw pact and the COMECON.

The arranged People's Tribunal issued more than 9000 sentences, 2730 of them being capital ones. After that the repressions were focused on the legal opposition. During the first years many political parties tried to return to political life. But in this period the political parties outside the Fatherland Front were banned, the economy and the banks were nationalised, the arable land was coercively organised in cooperatives. Political leaders, who disagreed with the new order in public, were oppressed by being sent in exile or even by extermination. The same way were eliminated some political leaders within the Communist party who were against the influence of the USSR and the Communist International.
The governing of the state went successively to leaders of the Bulgarian Communist Party as Georgi Dimitrov, Vassil Kolarov, Vulko Chervenkov, Anton Yougov and Todor Zhivkov.

In the middle of 1950s the Bulgarian society pinned its hopes for changes in the international situation, in the Soviet Union and the Bulgarian leadership. But the expected turnabout never occurred. Some measures had been undertaken within the existing totalitarian political system, but they were implemented in at a rather slow pace and of limited scale if implemented at all. Main problems was caused by the Socialist Planned Economy which, despite some positive results mainly in developing the national infrastructure, had failed to meet the tasks of international competition outside the COMECON. In the 1970s and 1980s it became evident, that the economic objectives were set at lower levels due to the continuous economic decline. The attempts to carry out technological renovation of the industry and to build industrial giants proved difficult, for they entailed enormous international loans. As the "perestroika" was launched in the mid 1980s, the national leadership already discussed the possibilities for structural renovation of the Bulgarian Economy and for broad economic cooperation with the western countries and Japan. The modest results of the "new concept" did not reduce the acuteness of the economic problems, which were further exacerbated.

The Democratic Transition
The date 10 November 1989 marked the beginning of the democratic changes in Bulgaria. A new Constitution was adopted (1991), the political parties were restored, the property expropriated in 1947 was resituated, privatisation and restitution of the land started. In 1990 Zhelyu Zhelev became President of Bulgaria - the first democratically elected President.

In the next years the key priorities in Bulgaria's foreign policy became the membership in the European Union and NATO.

On 10 November,1989 the Communist Party leadership resorted to a cadre change in order to retain its hold on state governance, which had been qualified as "a palace coup" by some historians, emphasizing the decisive importance of the Soviet pressure for its implementation.

The Bulgarian society was generally satisfied with the long-awaited change, which had occurred with a definite historical delay. Quite soon two trends took shape in the situation of stirred political sentiments: those supporting the democratization of the existing totalitarian system and those advocating its radical elimination.

On 7 December 1989, sixteen opposition organizations set up the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF). It was made up of the former "non-formal" organizations and some of the old pre-war parties, which resumed their activities. Many public and political organizations have changed their leadership and their names. The general tendency of democratization affected also the Bulgarian Communist Party - it changed the name to Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and several factions took shape in it.

The heated debates at the "round table" (set from mid January 1990) led to an agreement on the main and important issues: on a democratization of the state institutions, on the adoption of the law on the political parties, on the restoration of the private property, on human rights guarantees, on the privatization and the introduction of market mechanisms, etc.

In July 1991 the new Constitution was adopted. It reinstated the principle of divided power in governance and thereby actually legalized the elimination of the communist totalitarian system. But some of its provisions were imperfectly formulated, so their legal essence could not encompass the forthcoming changes.

In October 1991 the UDF won the parliamentary elections by very narrow margin as did its candidate for the President.

The implementation of consistent policy of decommunization was launched in all spheres of social life. The restoration of the collectivized land and of nationalized urban property to their former owners began.

After series of mistakes due to the lack of experience and after losing coalition support, the UDF government resigned. The appointed provisional cabinet could not handle the problems of the country without parliamentary support. Bulgarian Socialist party and its coalition partners took advantage of the mass sentiments - strong nostalgia for the communist past and won the 1994 general elections.

The new Government of BSP was unable to resolve growing problems - inflation, collapse of the banking system, crimes, grain crisis, etc. The Parliament passed many laws, but they were left aside without implementation. The victory of the UDF candidate Petar Stoyanov at the presidential elections in late 1996 was logical. It was actually a non-confidence vote for the Government of BSP and it served as a signal for reunification of the UDF, then in opposition.

The financial and economic situation in the country deteriorated drastically by the end of 1996. Statistics indicated regress in all spheres of the economy. After the BSP Government resigned the country plunged into a deepest crisis in its modern history. UDF initiated and headed the mass protest in the whole country. The ruling BSP had to give in so as to avoid bloodshed. Its leadership accepted the UDF demand for pre-term elections. The Parliament was dissolved but at its last session it empowered the future interim Cabinet to conduct negotiations and conclude agreements with the international financial institutions.

The failure of the BSP led coalition predetermined its crucial defeat during the parliamentary elections on 19 April,1997. UDF established the Allied Democratic Forces coalition, which won the absolute parliamentary majority. The leader of the UDF Ivan Kostov headed the new government, which was faced with the hard task of conducting reforms and introducing the currency board.

The last years
On April 6, 2001 Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha / Simeon II /, son of King Boris III and Queen Joanna, who had already returned to Bulgaria in 1996 after almost 50 years of exile, proclaimed his wish to return for good and to work actively while he draws on the experience he had amassed in exile and on his contacts in the effort to revive the country.

In a historic address to the Bulgarian nation he proclaimed his intention to found a National Movement named after him for new political morals and integrity. As the leader of the Movement and having coped with the stumbling blocks to register the Movement at court, the Bulgarian King played in the parliamentary election on June 17, 2001.

Elections for 39th National Assembly
The elections for 39tth National Assembly were held on 17 June 2001 according to a proportional system with ballot lists of parties, coalitions, and independent candidates registered in 31 multi-mandate constituencies.

Thirty-six parties and coalitions out of a total of 64 and 11 independent candidates took part in the elections.

Four political forces exceeded the 4 % barrier:
Coalition "National Movement Simeon the Second" (Party of Bulgarian Women and "Oborishte" National Revival Movement) won 42.74 % of the votes and secured 120 mandates.
Coalition "United Democratic Forces" (Union of Democratic Forces, Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union - "People's Union" and Democratic Party, Bulgarian Social -Democratic Party, National Movement for Rights and Freedoms) - 18.18 % of the votes, 51 mandates.
Coalition "Coalition for Bulgaria" (Bulgarian Socialist Party, "Social Democrats" Political Movement, United Labour Block, Bulgarian Agrarian Union "Al. Stamboliyski - 1899", Union for the Fatherland, Social-Liberal Progress Alliance, "Forward Bulgaria" Movement, Communist Party of Bulgaria, "Trakiya" Political Club, "Roma" Civil Alliance) - 17.15 % of the votes, 48 mandates.
Coalition "Movement for Rights and Freedoms" (Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Liberal Alliance, "Euroroma" Political Movement) - 7.45 % of the votes, 21 mandates.

In the National Assembly these political forces registered four Parliamentary Groups:
National Movement Simeon II;
United Democratic Forces;
Coalition for Bulgaria;
Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
The first sitting of the 39th National Assembly was held on 5 July 2001.

The Prime Minister
Having won a landslide victory for the National Movement, on July 24, 2001 Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha was sworn in as Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Last elections for President of the Republic of Bulgaria
The two rounds of the last elections for new President and Vice President were held on 11 and 18 November 2001. Six nominations for President and six nominations for Vice President, presented by four political parties, one coalition and one initiative committee took part in the first round of elections. At the second round the candidates of the coalition "Coalition for Bulgaria" won 54.13 % of the votes /won 2043443 votes/.

The President
Mr. Georgi Parvanov was elected President of Bulgaria. Mr. Angel Marin was elected Vice President of Bulgaria. They took office as President and as Vice President on 22 January 2002.

Results of the new Bulgarian foreign policy
As a result of the country's considerable progress towards meeting the criteria for EU membership, Bulgaria received on 10 December 1999 the invitation to start the pre-accession negotiations.

The negotiations started in Brussels on 15 February 2000. On 1 December 2000, the Council of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the European Union decided to remove Bulgaria from the negative visa list.

An invitation for NATO Membership has been extended to Bulgaria during the Prague NATO Summit in November 2002. On April 2, 2004 Bulgaria has become member of NATO.

Statement by Dr. Solomon Passy, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria