- The Sofia Echo
- Expat in Bulgaria
- Propertywise Bulgaria
- About Us
- Sitemap
- Sales Points
- Advertise
- Email Bulletins
- Home
advertisement
Tue, Feb 09 2010
Saxe-Coburg hits back in land restitution row
Photo: Krassimir Yuskesseliev
Bulgaria's former monarch and former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg has hit back at allegations by state officials who say that he will face court action because he had been given double the awards he was entitled to under the country's post-communist property restitution process.
In an interview published by Israeli Maariv newspaper on October 5 2009, Saxe-Coburg referred to criticism that his motivation to return to Bulgaria in 2001 to enter politics -- in that year, the former exile won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections and became prime minister -- was so that he could have had former crown property handed to him.
Saxe-Coburg was briefly boy king of Bulgaria after the death of his father, Boris III, but was dethroned and exiled through a referendum, conducted by Bulgaria's post-World War 2 communist regime, on abolishing the monarchy. Saxe-Coburg spent most of the ensuing years as an exile in Madrid.
"Can I pack this real estate in a suitcase and take it back to Madrid?" the report quoted him as saying.
"Was this real estate the property of the people during the past 50 years? Those in power had them and after that, these properties were left without care, and I ask what should have I done: to spend money on them and their maintenance, or to leave them without proper care. No one in Bulgaria who had the right to restitution refused it, no matter who you are" he told Maariv.
"When in 1998 the constitutional court said that I, as a Bulgarian citizen, had a right to restitution, no one said anything against it. When we donated 90 hectares to Sofia city hall, no one said 'wait this is not yours to give' and everything was great.
"But from the moment I became prime minister they started searching for such things" Saxe-Coburg said.
The interview was published as the head of the state Forestry Agency Georgi Kostov was reported to have said that Saxe-Coburg had received more land than he was entitled to, and the state would file a claim.
In 2003, during Saxe-Coburg's term as prime minister, Parliament decided to return the assets of the former royal family, seized by the Communist regime in 1946.
It was later alleged that during the restitution, about 452ha of forests near the town of Samokov were transferred to the former royal family with no legal basis for doing so.
In an interview published by Israeli Maariv newspaper on October 5 2009, Saxe-Coburg referred to criticism that his motivation to return to Bulgaria in 2001 to enter politics -- in that year, the former exile won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections and became prime minister -- was so that he could have had former crown property handed to him.
Saxe-Coburg was briefly boy king of Bulgaria after the death of his father, Boris III, but was dethroned and exiled through a referendum, conducted by Bulgaria's post-World War 2 communist regime, on abolishing the monarchy. Saxe-Coburg spent most of the ensuing years as an exile in Madrid.
"Can I pack this real estate in a suitcase and take it back to Madrid?" the report quoted him as saying.
"Was this real estate the property of the people during the past 50 years? Those in power had them and after that, these properties were left without care, and I ask what should have I done: to spend money on them and their maintenance, or to leave them without proper care. No one in Bulgaria who had the right to restitution refused it, no matter who you are" he told Maariv.
"When in 1998 the constitutional court said that I, as a Bulgarian citizen, had a right to restitution, no one said anything against it. When we donated 90 hectares to Sofia city hall, no one said 'wait this is not yours to give' and everything was great.
"But from the moment I became prime minister they started searching for such things" Saxe-Coburg said.
The interview was published as the head of the state Forestry Agency Georgi Kostov was reported to have said that Saxe-Coburg had received more land than he was entitled to, and the state would file a claim.
In 2003, during Saxe-Coburg's term as prime minister, Parliament decided to return the assets of the former royal family, seized by the Communist regime in 1946.
It was later alleged that during the restitution, about 452ha of forests near the town of Samokov were transferred to the former royal family with no legal basis for doing so.
-
Print
-
Send via email
- Translate to
-
Share:
Comments
Write comment
By posting a comment, you are deemed to have read and agreed to our
Acceptable Use Policy.
Moratorium on Saxe-Coburg's land
The motion was proposed by the Order, Law and Justice party and was supported by ruling party GERB, ultra-nationalist Ataka party and the right-wing Blue Coalition.
The state tries to recover land awarded to Simeon Saxe-Coburg
The former monarch and prime minister received the forests through the post-communist restitution process, but the state claims he got more than his due
Saxe-Coburg ‘quickly selling off forests’ – media report
Bulgaria’s former monarch Simeon Saxe-Coburg is quickly selling off forests he got under the country’s post-communist restitution process, a newspaper alleges, after the state said it would go to court to get some of the forests back.
Saxe-Coburg again mooted as 'President of Europe'
Bulgaria had to have a nominee for the post, and Saxe-Coburg was one of the few people in Bulgaria worthy of it, former foreign minister Passi says.
Former PM faces litigation over restituted forests
It was later alleged that during the restitution, about 452ha of forests near the town of Samokov were transferred to the former royal family without any grounds for it.
More in this category
Record number former State Security agents among Academy of Science management
First time the ratio of former collaborators is above 10 percent of records examined.
Bulgaria faced with another blizzard on February 10-11
Weather conditions in Bulgaria on February 10-11 will become 'forbidding' according to the forecast.
Bulgarian troops return from Afghanistan
260 Bulgarian soldiers landed at Sofia Airport from Kandahar on February 8 2010.
Bulgaria ‘could win Eurovision 2010’ – Miro
Having chosen its contestant to go to Oslo for Eurovision 2010, on February 28 Bulgaria will choose the song that he will sing.
Ropotamo River bursts its banks affecting roads in the region
Up to 90cm of snow cover in the region between Kurdzhali and Assenovgrad, while near Adrino snow cover is more than 70cm
© 2000-2010, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.
Web Design by RIZN
Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted.
Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only
with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site.
Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com.
Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments.
The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the
price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes,
and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.
- Economedia Group portfolio:
- In Bulgarian:
-
Business:
Капитал,
Кариери,
Пазари,
Ho Re Mag,
Регал,
Stroitelstvo.info,
Одит,
Foton.bg,
Klikshop.bg
- News: Дневник, Европа, Foreign Policy - България
- IT: IDG.BG, Computerworld, PC World, CIO, Networkworld
- Entertainment: Бакхус, pipe.bg
-
In English:
The Sofia Echo, Property Wise Bulgaria, Expat In Bulgaria
Now I'm no expert on Bulgarian history but from what I've heard, they needed someone to act as the 'King of Bulgaria' and found this guy, a drunkard in a pub and told him he was now the King of Bulgaria. I'm sure this guy thought he was dreaming but then woke up and it was all real and now being passed down to his desendents, one being Saxe- Coburg. IS he the true monarch of Bulgaria or just the desendend of some guy picked out of a bar to rule a nation without a king or leader and just hand him the keys to the kingdom and now his desendents feel this right of intitlement. it just seems wrong to this Ex-Pat but what do I know? I suppose nothing
Hoosier: Who failed whom? Did he fail the nation by trying to drag it kicking and screaming into the western democracies; or did the nation fail him by not giving him support at citizen level?
At least he made an effort, which is more than can be said for 99% of the politicians. I would rather have a leader who tries and possibly fails, than a leader who does nothing.
Why should he not be like all of the rest of the people in power. So many people had hope in him, and he failed them.
If the land in question once belonged to his family then as I understand the laws he (as the acting head of the family) is entitled to have the land returned
to him. If there was an error and too much land, or land which was not rightly his, was given to him then either ask him to return it oor go to court and force him to rreturn the excess property. Based on what I have read he is willing tto return any lands given to him in error or which he is not eentiteld to without contesting the court.
Providing he acted in good faith when applying to have the land restituted back, I don't really see how they can claim it back.
So what!!!
He has as much right to have his property back as any other citizen - no more and no less. The Forestry Agency is also acting correctly if they feel there has been an error - they file a claim in the proper way. He has already publicly stated that he will accept any such decision without reservation.
As for any 'claim' made by unnamed sources - liberally sprinkled with the escape word of 'alleged' - I should give that the same weight at the communist referendum to abolish the monarchy - a weight equal to a small white feather!!
Personally I think he should never have been Prime Minister. Not because he was good or bad, but because he should have used his popularity at that time as a politically neutral but involved ex-King. Lets be frank here, the european league table of stable democratic nations are headed by constitutional monarchies.