Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the 89-year-old former king of Bulgaria who later served as prime minister, reflects on war, exile, democracy and the limits of European integration in a rare interview at Vrana Palace.
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Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha at 89: Europe's last WWII head of state
From boy king to prime minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's 89-year arc traces Bulgaria's journey through war, exile, democracy and the limits of European integration.
When Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was 6, his father, King Boris III of Bulgaria, died suddenly after returning from a meeting with Adolf Hitler. Boris had refused Hitler's demands to deploy Bulgarian troops against the Soviet Union and to deport the country's 48,000 Jews — a decision that spared them from the death camps but may have cost him his life. Whether from stress or poisoning, his death at 49 thrust a child onto the throne of a minor Axis power in the final years of World War II.
"One cannot forget those things, no matter how old they are," Simeon, now 89, told the Wall Street Journal in a rare interview at Vrana Palace, the neo-Byzantine estate on the outskirts of Sofia that his grandfather, Tsar Ferdinand, built in 1912. "Suddenly, they referred to me as they used to refer to my father. Something dawned upon me: that I was the king now."
His three-year reign ended in 1946 when a rigged referendum abolished the monarchy after the Soviet invasion. The royal family fled to Egypt and then to Spain, where Gen. Francisco Franco granted them refuge. Simeon's uncle, Prince Kiril, and dozens of royalist elites were executed by Stalinist show trials — lined up along the rim of a bomb crater and shot. The boy king spent five decades in exile, building a business career and raising a family with his Spanish noblewoman wife.
The Return and the Democratic Experiment
In 2001, at 64, Simeon returned to Bulgaria and was elected prime minister, running on an Atlanticist, pro-market platform. His government secured NATO membership for Bulgaria in 2004 and accelerated the country's accession to the European Union, which was completed in 2007. During Bulgaria's 2003 term on the UN Security Council, the former king supported the Iraq war at the request of the Bush administration, albeit with reservations.
The arc of his career mirrors Bulgaria's own transformation. The country of 6.4 million people — down from nearly 9 million at the end of the communist period — has completed much of the journey that began with the fall of the Iron Curtain. It adopted the euro, joined the Schengen Area, and has seen its cultural influence grow through figures such as Georgi Gospodinov, whose novel "Time Shelter" won international acclaim.
Yet the experience of many citizens tells a different story. Bulgaria has moved closer to Europe's institutional core faster than it has transformed the everyday functioning of its own state. Since 2021, the country has endured a succession of elections, caretaker governments and fragile coalitions. Corruption remains a dominant lens through which public life is interpreted, with controversies surrounding figures such as Delyan Peevski and the Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev fueling public skepticism about institutional neutrality.
The Geopolitical Tightrope
On the Ukraine conflict, Simeon speaks carefully but critically. He wonders whether the West missed its chance to draw Russia into the European fold after 1991. "Had the West been more conciliatory with the new Russia in the early 1990s, we could have attracted Russia towards Europe," he said. "I think we could have had an even more important bloc."
His perspective reflects Bulgaria's uniquely complex relationship with Russia. Unlike Poland or the Baltic states, Bulgarian attitudes toward Moscow are shaped not only by contemporary geopolitics but by historical memory of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, which liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. The battles of Shipka and Pleven remain central to the national narrative. This historical gratitude does not translate into support for the Kremlin, but it helps explain why debates about Russia remain more emotionally and politically complex here than elsewhere on NATO's Eastern Flank.
Simeon is also wary of American hegemony. "The United States has contributed so much in so many ways to Europe," he said. "But I think most people, in the long run, resent hegemony." He recalled with ambivalence Bulgaria's rapid pivot from one of the most pro-Soviet states to a NATO member: "I thought that it wasn't very dignified."
What a Lifetime of Statecraft Teaches
On monarchy, Simeon is measured but pointed. "There is the theory that hereditary systems are obsolete," he said. "In 5,000 years, if you look back, there have been dictatorships, monarchies, autocrats, republics. Nothing is newer or more modern." He sees an inherent advantage in dynastic thinking: "With monarchy, it's almost automatic to think 25 years ahead. You have to leave something to your child."
He worries about the surveillance state, speaking from experience. Bulgaria's communist-era secret services kept a dossier on him during his years abroad, monitoring correspondence of prominent exiles. "In the communist days here in Bulgaria we had less police on the streets than in our democratic times, which shows how that system operated and controlled the population. It put the fear of God in them, or the fear of something, because God was not supposed to exist."
The lesson of a long life spent ruling a small country, he suggests, is that minor states are perennially at the mercy of greater powers. "I don't like generalizing," he said, "but we in Bulgaria tend to have a little bit of a feeling, that I've had on more than one occasion, that there is some plot against us somewhere, led by God knows who."
For the European Union, Simeon's story offers an important lesson. Integration can anchor countries geopolitically, but it cannot by itself create trust. Membership, funding and formal compliance do not automatically generate institutions that citizens believe in. For Bulgaria's leaders, the task now is to make European integration meaningful at home — through stronger institutions, more predictable governance and greater public confidence. The country's future will be determined less by the borders it has crossed than by the state it is still trying to build.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
