Bulgaria Chooses Tsar-Power
Simeon Borisov Saxe-Coburg, better known to his followers as Tsar Simeon the Second, has just become the first royal to regain power in a former East European communist country. Though in precisely what role is not yet clear.
The political party he formed only two months ago — the National Movement for Simeon II — swept the country by storm, winning at least half the seats in Sunday's election for the Bulgarian parliament. He could now become prime minister if he chooses. Some say he hopes to change the constitution some day and become king again. Saxe-Coburg is deliberately vague about his future.
His past connection with his country was brief and dramatic. His father, the much-loved Boris III, suddenly died in 1943; many believe he was killed by the Nazis. Six-year-old Simeon became the boy king of wartime Bulgaria, until the communists took over the country and threw out the monarchy in 1946.
His long exile took him from Bulgaria to Turkey, then to Egypt and eventually to Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania. He eventually settled in Madrid, married a Spanish aristocrat and ran an international business consulting firm.
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| CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton |
He was barred by the courts for running for president because he has not lived long enough in the country. His answer was to form the new party, which has just defeated the conservative pro-Western government of Prime Minister Ivan Kostov.
Throughout the campaign, the former king was mobbed by ecstatic crowds of Bulgarians. A tall, elegant man who speaks old-fashioned Bulgarian, he has become a cult figure in a country that is fed up with the gross corruption and failed reforms of both the rightists and the ex-communists. His political program, a mixture of populism and conservatism, promises to improve the economy and turn the country around within 800 days.
His advisors include a number of expatriate Bulgarians with impressive track records at such companies as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Merrill Lynch.
He will need all the help he can get. Bulgaria is wracked by rising unemployment, low pay and miserable living standards. Under the outgoing conservative government, the macro-economic situation improved somewhat, but as one critic observed, "You can't eat macro-economics."
You can't eat monarchy either. But whatever role Saxe-Coburg, or Tsar Simeon II, decides tplay in his homeland, he has given his people hope.
By Tom Fenton
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