Simeon from Bulgaria

Simeon Borisov of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Savoy (Bulgarian: Симеон Борисов Сакскобургготски), also called Simeon II of Bulgaria (Sofia, Bulgaria, June 16, 1937), was the last king of Bulgaria, who later became Prime Minister of the same country between 2001 and 2005.

Biography

Real monogram of Simeon like Zar of Bulgaria.

Simeon was born on June 16, 1937 in Sofia (Bulgaria) as the son of Tsar Boris III and Queen Juana of Savoy. His father had water collected from the Jordan River for his baptism. He was born as heir to the throne, whose title was Prince of Tarnovo, and spent his childhood with his parents and his older sister, Princess Maria Luisa, in the Vrana palace, near From Sofia.

Tsar of Bulgaria

He acceded to the throne at the age of 6, after the sudden death of his father after an interview with Adolf Hitler, on 28 August 1943. His uncle, Prince Kyril of Bulgaria, was made regent, along with Prime Minister Bogdan Filov and General Nikola Mikhov, and subsequently, all were sentenced to death and executed by the communists after the revolution of September 9, 1944.

Since then, the Bulgarian royal family, consisting of Queen Joanna, Simeon II and his sister Maria Luisa, has been under house arrest for several years. The same Vrana palace was bombed on March 24, 1944 by the British Royal Air Force, since Bulgaria was part of the Axis Forces, burning the house, so the family had to take refuge in a bunker at the foot of the palace.. On September 8, 1946, a referendum was held, while the country was occupied by the Red Army, which returned 95.6% of the vote in favor of the creation of a socialist republic and the abolition of the monarchy. September 1946, the royal family left Bulgaria. However, Simeon II never got to sign the abdication documents.

Exile

The royal family first traveled to Alexandria, in Egypt, where Queen Joan's parents, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Helena of Montenegro, also lived in exile. Over there. Simeon II attended Victoria College along with the also exiled Prince Leka of Albania and the future Hussein I of Jordan, among other personalities. In July 1951, the Spain of the dictator Francisco Franco offered the royal family asylum through the Spanish ambassador in Egypt, the family accepted and they arrived in Barcelona on July 20, to later spend two months in a hotel in San Lorenzo de El Escorial until its final transfer to Madrid.

Simeón studied at the French Lyceum in Madrid and at the Valley Forge Military Academy and College, United States. In 1955, at a coming-of-age ceremony in which he reaffirmed himself as Bulgarian Tsar, Francisco Franco awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos III. He became a businessman and was a director of the Spanish subsidiary of Thomson.

On January 21, 1962, Simeón married Spanish aristocrat Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela, daughter of the Marquises of Cortina, in a private ceremony at their home in Madrid; later by the civil one in Lausanne, Switzerland, and finally by the orthodox rite in the Russian church of Vevey, Switzerland, in which King Faruq of Egypt, Prince Michael of Greece, Demetro Romanov, etc. were present. The couple had five children: Kardam, Kyril, Kubrat, Konstantin-Assen and Kalina.

From Spain, Simeon maintained his relationship with the Bulgarian exiles and, after the fall of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the Iron Curtain, he increased his contacts with all sectors of Bulgarian political life. However, he did not set foot in Bulgaria again until May 25, 1996, transferred by the official plane of the monarch Juan Carlos I. Upon arrival he was greeted by an immense tide of citizens and personalities, he even received a proposal for a meeting with the former communist leader Todor Zhivkov, request that he rejected.

Prime Minister of Bulgaria

After recovering his Bulgarian citizenship under the name of Simeon Borisov of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and recovering his private assets, now again in question, he moved to his country permanently in 2001 as leader and candidate of the National Movement party Simeon II. In the parliamentary elections of June 17, 2001, after campaigning on the idea of increasing salaries and pensions (promises ultimately abandoned after the elections), the MNS won 119 of the 240 seats and Simeon was appointed prime minister. of Bulgaria on July 24 of that year, with the support of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and the Bulgarian Women's Party, being the only case in history in which a dethroned monarch regains political power under republican forms by attending some elections.

In power, he tried to recover the assets of the former ruling family that had been nationalized by the communist government. In 2001, his government removed several residences from the list of real estate managed by the Bulgarian government. The following year, he obtained from the governor of the province of Sofia, appointed by him, the restitution of several hunting lodges. Between 2003 and 2005, at least four more properties and thousands of hectares of land were repossessed by the former king.

Despite being elected prime minister, he did not move to official residence, but continued to inhabit the Vrana palace. Simeon has never renounced the throne, however, he has sworn several times not to seek the restoration of the monarchy in Bulgaria. During his tenure, Bulgaria joined NATO in 2005.

Simeon lost the following legislative elections, held on June 25, 2005, in a climate of questioning of his government for corruption of several of its ministers, in which the Bulgarian Socialist Party was victorious by a simple majority. In 2009, after the bad electoral results, he resigned from the presidency of the party and left politics.

Controversy over private goods

In 1998, the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria unanimously agreed with Simeon so that his old assets were recovered, a fact that encouraged him to return to live in Bulgaria and enter political life. However, in December 2009, the Bulgarian Parliament voted to disqualify him from disposing of such assets. Currently Simeón, his wife Margarita, and his sister María Luisa are fighting in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg so that their properties will not be expropriated again.

After leaving office, he was the subject of several lawsuits for using his position as prime minister for personal enrichment. Staying close to Boyko Borisov (his former bodyguard whom he appointed General Secretary of the Interior Ministry in 2001), he obtained a special law in 2017 to circumvent court decisions. In exchange for this law, he reportedly took advantage of his connections to the Saudi monarchy to attract Saudi investment in Bulgaria's tourism sector.

At the end of August 2018, Judge Petya Aleksieva of the Sofia Court decreed the loss of the property of the Vrana palace of Simeon and his sister Maria Luisa, passing to state ownership. Both have stated that they will appeal the judicial decision.

Autobiography

Simeon II wrote an autobiography in French under the title Simeon II de Bulgarie, un destin singulier which went on sale in Bulgaria on October 28, 2014. It was presented at the Unesco headquarters in Paris on October 22 of the same year. Later, the book has been published in several more languages.

• Simeon II of Bulgaria, a singular destination. Nobel Editions. ISBN 9788484597285

Marriage and offspring

On January 21, 1962, he married Margarita Gómez-Acebo, in Lausanne, Switzerland, they had five children:

• Kardam, Prince of Tírnovo (2 December 1962-7 April 2015). Married with Miriam Ungría and López. He has two children, Boris and Beltrán.

• Kyril, Prince of Preslav (born in 1964). Married with Rosario Nadal and Fuster-Puigdórfila. They have three children, Mafalda, Olympia and Tássilo.

• Kubrat, Prince of Panagiurishte (5 November 1965). Married with Carla Soledad Royo-Villanova and Urrestarazu. They have three children, Mirko, Lukás and Tirso.

• Konstantin, Prince of Vidin (1967). Married with María García de la Rasilla and Gortazar, parents of two twins called, Umberto and Sofia.

• Kalina, Countess of Murany (17 January 1972). Married with Antonio José "Kitín" Muñoz y Valcárcel, mother of a son named Simeón Hassan.

Honorary Distinctions

Bulgarian Honorary Awards

• Sovereign Grand Master of the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius (28/08/1943).
• Sovereign Great Cross of the Royal Order of Valentía (28/08/1943).
• Sovereign Grand Master of the Order of Saint Alexander (28/08/1943).
• Sovereign Grand Master of the Order of Civil Merit (28/08/1943).
• Sovereign Grand Master of the Military Merit Order (28/08/1943).

Foreign Honorary Distinctions

• Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation (Real House of Italy, 1955).
• Big Knight of the Order of Saints Mauritius and Lazarus (Real House of Italy, 1955).
• Grand Cross Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy (Real House of Italy, 1955).
• Big Cross Knight of the Order of Charles III (Spain, 16/06/1955).
• Knight of the Order of the Golden Toy (Reino de España, 01/10/2004).
• Knight of the Order of San Jenaro (Real House of the Two Sicilies).
• Great Knight of Justice of the Holy Constantinian Military Order of St. George (Real House of the Two Sicilies, 1960).
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Reino de Belgium).
• Commemorative Medal of the 70th Anniversary of King Carlos XVI Gustavo (Reino de Sweden, 30/04/2016).

Ancestors