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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51380-2002Apr25.html A Former Boy King's Big Vision for Bulgaria By Nora Boustany Washington Post Friday, April 26, 2002; Page A24 Elegant and remarkably regal despite a four-day Washington whirlwind of politicking and meetings, Bulgaria's former boy king and present prime minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, said the most notable change he has witnessed since his return from exile has been the country's painful transition to a market economy. He has been struck, he said, by the spirit of entrepreneurship of his fellow Bulgarians, whom he has pledged to lead out of the economic doldrums of the postcommunist era. Exiled by the communists at the age of 9 in 1946, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha went on to become a successful banker and investor; he lived in Spain until 1996. With a pressing mandate to prepare his country for integration into the world community by joining NATO and the European Union, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, at 64, is now putting his worldliness, savvy Western ways and business acumen to work for Bulgaria -- and working full tilt. The World Bank is currently funding nine projects worth $350 million there and is proposing a lending program of as much as $750 million -- a plan that will go to a vote at the meeting of bank directors May 9. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha sleeps only five hours a night after putting in marathon days that rarely end before 10:30 p.m., according to Gen. Nikola Kolev, deputy chief of the general staff of the Bulgarian armed forces, who accompanied the prime minister along with Justice Minister Anton Stankov and Stanimir Ilchev, chairman of the Foreign Policy, Defense and Security Committee in Bulgaria's National Assembly. Crowned at age 6 in 1943 after his father's sudden death, Simeon II, as he is also known, fled Bulgaria three years later for Egypt, where he lived for four years before going on to study at Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania, among other places. He breaks into flawless, Egyptian-accented Arabic to prove his fluency. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's favorite recollection of a visit in the early 1960s to Chicago, where about 50,000 Bulgarian Americans reside, is an encounter with the late mayor, Richard J. Daley (father of the current mayor), who was impressed when the young exile noted that the Windy City was known for its old churches. "Well, I'll be darned," was Daley's response, he recalled. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, slim and slightly bearded, is still amused by the description of him in the Chicago Tribune then as a "somewhat deflated version of actor Peter Ustinov," an insight that both men got to check out firsthand much later when they met, he said with a chuckle. Last April, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha formed a small political party, which went on to a landslide victory in elections in June. He wishes to be addressed as "Mr. Prime Minister," he specified when asked Tuesday evening. Earlier in the day, over breakfast with journalists at the Hay-Adams, he did not rule out a possible restoration of the monarchy -- not by decree, but only if the electorate so decided at a later point. "In the final analysis, it is a matter of great pride to me that I have not simply been czar of Bulgaria, but have been prime minister, elected by a substantial majority of the Bulgarian people. That, at least, can never be taken away," Saxe-Coburg-Gotha said. On Monday he pressed the right buttons during a speech at the Heritage Foundation when he said that including Bulgaria in a robust NATO, along with other "qualified aspirants, will contribute to the victory in the war against terrorism." He underlined his countrymen's recent peacekeeping contributions in the Balkans, stressing that further NATO enlargement to the south would make European borders more secure. He took his case for Bulgarian membership in NATO to the White House on Tuesday at a meeting with President Bush, as well as to legislators on Capitol Hill. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
