Simeon II, swept to power on a massive protest vote, must prove he can root out corruption and deliver on promises to reform economy
By Justin Huggler in Sofia
The former king of Bulgaria's victory may give renewed hope of a comeback to Eastern Europe's other ex-royals. They include:
* King Leka of Albania, who still cherishes strong, if unrealistic, hopes of restoring the monarchy to his homeland. He was only three years old when he fled Albania in 1939 during Mussolini's invasion. He returned to Albania in 1997 and attempted to restore the monarchy but lost a referendum and was forced to leave.
* Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia was born in exile 55 years ago. He was fully reinstated as a Yugoslav citizen this year after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in a ceremony that took place in the same London hotel room of his birth. Alexander, the godson of Queen Elizabeth, has said he wants to see democracy develop in his homeland.
* Romania's King Michael, 77, reigned twice before going into exile in London in 1947. His citizenship was renewed in 1997 when he and his family returned to Bucharest and were greeted by enthusiastic crowds of supporters. He is now 80, though, and, even if he did manage a return to the monarchy, has no sons to pass his crown to.
Jill Hanning
Bulgarians awoke yesterday to an extraordinary victory for their former king in the country's parliamentary elections. He has become the first ex-monarch to regain political power in an eastern European state.
With 99.9 per cent of votes counted, a party led by Simeon II, deposed from the throne and sent into a life of exile at the age of nine in 1946, won slightly more than 43 per cent of the votes counted, sweeping aside the two parties that have alternated in power since the fall of Communism.
Rather than a popular vote to restore the monarchy, the poll was a massive protest vote against the older political parties blamed for grinding poverty, a national unemployment rate of 60 per cent and endemic corruption whose policies have brought a decline in living standards.
Ivan Krustev, Bulgaria's leading political analyst, said: "The current government have been victims of their own success because the people saw them hailing their economic policies as a success but didn't gain much benefit themselves."
At a press conference on Sunday night as the first results came in, the former king, a political novice who only entered active politics in April, said: "Together, we are embarking on a path of economic and moral renovation. It will not be an easy one, there will be many obstacles, but we will not give up."
For now, the 64-year-old ex-monarch is celebrating his victory, which seemed likely to give him one seat short of an absolute majority in parliament, after winning 120 seats in the 240-member chamber. His next challenge is to prove that his party, much of its leadership new to politics, can run a country and deliver on its promises.
Whether Simeon will become Prime Minister is not yet clear. Although he did not personally run for parliament, his party openly campaigned around him as a cult figure and he can easily claim the mandate to be Prime Minister.
But some believe he has his sights set higher: on the presidency, from which he was barred from running by the constitutional court; or even on restoring his throne.
According to opinion polls, however, there is only about 15 per cent support for restoring the monarchy.
The former king promised improved prosperity within 800 days, but analysts say his economic programme drafted by Bulgarian expat bankers from the City of London is unrealistic, and predict his government will have to scale down its plans once in office. Simeon personally promised low interest loans for every citizen of Bulgaria during the election, only for his economic team to backtrack rapidly.
The party has promised to lower personal income tax, and introduce a zero-rate corporate tax to encourage foreign investment but also a balanced budget. Talks are now expected to begin on a coalition government. A small party representing Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish minority, which was poised to win 21 seats, has already declared its willingness to join the National Movement for Simeon II.
The former king called for a broad coalition of all parties, but that is probably an unrealistic aim. The outgoing Prime Minister, Ivan Kostov, opposes the idea, saying it would leave the Bulgarian people as the opposition.
Mr Kostov's centre-right UDF party looked likely to win 51 seats, three more than the Socialist Party of former Communists.
The two parties the ex-Communists and their old liberal opponents have alternated in power in Bulgaria since Communism fell in 1989 without so much as a single street protest in Sofia.
"We have taken a lot of unpopular decisions and also made mistakes," Mr Kostov, pale and clearly traumatised, told a news conference in the early hours of yesterday. "We wanted the voter to pay a higher price than he was prepared to pay."
President Petar Stoyanov, who had given full support to the UDF, congratulated the ex-king's movement and called for a broad coalition. "We have not yet crossed the deep river of reforms. The burden has to be carried on many shoulders," he said yesterday.
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