Bulgaria's former king, Simeon II, yesterday led his two-month-old political movement to a resounding general election victory, leaving main-line parties to bargain for a place in an offered coalition.
The Prime Minister, Mr Ivan Kostov, admitted that his UDF party had suffered "a heavy election defeat" in yesterday's vote, and hinted at stepping down as party leader.
At the age of 64 Simeon becomes the first ex-monarch to regain political power in a former East European communist state.
But while officials from the outgoing UDF coalition said they also could consider entering a coalition, some warned it may prove difficult.
"The movement will seek a very broad coalition," said Mr Emil Koshlukov, the head of the National Movement Simeon II (NMS II), after partial results said it would win 45 per cent of votes.
The UDF party, which scored 19 per cent in yesterday's ballots, heavily criticised Simeon's party during the election campaign, condemning it as populist.
Simeon was exiled from Bulgaria at the age of nine - three years after acceding to the throne - after a rigged referendum abolished the monarchy in 1946. He ran a management consultancy in Madrid before entering politics in his homeland in April and voted for the first time in his life yesterday.
Simeon's huge estates across Bulgaria were confiscated by the Communists and returned by the outgoing government. He said a sense of duty to his motherland caused him to enter politics.
He launched his National Movement for Simeon II in April, after the Constitutional Court banned him from running for president. Throughout the campaign he consistently denied having a secret agenda to restore the monarchy.
Critics say he chose not to run personally for parliament to avoid swearing allegiance to a republican constitution. "I have chosen a path of self-sacrifice," Simeon said last Friday.
The tall, bald and bearded ex-monarch pointedly turned down television appearances during the campaign, preferring to tour the country, often flanked by his wife Margarita.
He received a rapturous welcome in a run-down Gypsy quarter of the capital, Sofia, where hundreds of men, women and children chanted: "We want the king, we want the king!"