Stefan Antonov Sofiyanski ( bg, Стефан Антонов Софиянски ) (born November 7, 1951) is a Bulgarian politician who served as interim Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 1997 and was a three-term

Mayor of Sofia This is a chronological list of mayors of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, since that post was established after the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878. The first governor of Sofia was Petr Alabin. Initially, the mayors of Sofia were assigned by the ...

. He was a leading member of the Union of Democratic Forces. Sofiyanski was born in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

in 1951. He was a statistics graduate from the Karl Marx Higher Institute of Economics and held a number of positions in the Ministry of Communications and Information during

communist rule A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

. He served in the cabinet of

Filip Dimitrov Philip Dimitrov Dimitrov ( bg, Филип Димитров Димитров ) (born 31 March 1955) is a Bulgarian politician, Prime Minister of Bulgaria 1991 – 1992, MP in the 36th (1991 – 1994), 37th (1994 – 1997) and the 40th (2005 � ...

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 Prime Minister by President

Petar Stoyanov Petar Stefanov Stojanov ( bg, Петър Стефанов Стоянов ; born 25 May 1952) is a Bulgarian politician who was President of Bulgaria from 1997 to 2002. He was elected as a candidate of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF). He di ...

in 1997 until such time as

Ivan Kostov Ivan Yordanov Kostov ( bg, Иван Йорданов Костов ) (born 23 December 1949, in Sofia) was the 47th Prime Minister of Bulgaria in office from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) between Dec ...

could form a government. In 2001 he announced that he was to leave the UDF and form his own party. He ultimately formed the

Union of Free Democrats The Union of Free Democrats ( bg, Съюз на свободните демократи, ''Sajuz na svobodnite demokrati'') is a conservative political party in Bulgaria, led by Stefan Sofiyanski. It contested the 2001 elections as part of the U ...

and, although it initially remained a part of the UDF, Sofiyanski and his party threw in their lot in with the

Bulgarian People's Union The Bulgarian People's Union ( bg, Български народен съюз) was a centre-right electoral alliance in Bulgaria. It contested only one legislative election: that on 25 June 2005. It won 5.7% of the popular vote and 13 out of 240 ...

. On January 1, 2007 he joined the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

as one of Bulgaria's interim members until the elections in May of the same year. In June 2008 Sofiyanski drew criticism from human rights advocates for his

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

remarks following Bulgaria's first

gay pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...

parade. In an interview for Darik Radio Sofiyanski said he "would never have authorized the parade," had he still been Sofia's mayor. With regard to the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

community, he stated that "those people have their rights to personal choice and privacy, however,

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

is condemned by the Bible and is unnatural, and has no right to publicity. It is as if thieves had a parade — because those people are thieves of morality."

References

External links

Biography of Sofiyanski
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sofiyanski, Stefan 1951 births Living people Prime Ministers of Bulgaria Mayors of Sofia University of National and World Economy alumni Union of Democratic Forces (Bulgaria) politicians Bulgarian People's Union MEPs Karl Marx Higher Institute of Economics alumni