Simeon II (1937– )

Prime minister and former king of Bulgaria, whose political party won the country's 2001 general election. Simeon succeeded to the throne at the aged of six in 1943, after his father Boris III's death. Simeon was a puppet king, under first German and then, from 1944, Russian occupation. In 1946 Simeon fled to Egypt after the communists rigged a referendum and declared a republic. He subsequently lived in exile in Spain. Simeon returned permanently to Bulgaria in 2001, after the Constitutional Court ruled that his family properties should be returned but that he could not stand for president. In April 2001 he formed the National Movement (NM), a populist political party. The NM won half the parliament's seats in 2001, and although he was not originally a candidate, Simeon accepted a nomination in July 2001 to become prime minister, taking the family name Simeon Koburgotski. He was replaced after losing the general elections of 2005.

Simeon's father was a cousin of England's Queen Victoria and also related to the Belgian royal family. Simeon was educated in England and the USA, studying economics. During his 55 years in exile in Madrid, Spain, he became a successful businessman, advising firms in Europe and Africa in the fields of banking, hotels, electrical goods, and catering. He married a Spanish aristocrat, but gave his five children Bulgarian names.

The National Movement policies include a commitment to swiftly taking Bulgaria into NATO and the European Union, cracking down on corruption and organized crime, introducing incentives for small- and medium-sized enterprises, and increasing the average salary to 400 levs a month within 800 days.