In a highly controversial ruling, the Bulgarian Court has allowed wood-cutting in the lands belonging to the country’s former Tsar Simeon Saxe Coburg.

click to view the picture in TIME

The permission will be effective until a ban on wood-cutting, issued by the head of the State Forest Estate, comes into force.

The decision is controversial because at the beginning of October the lower court banned these activities: the ban was supposed to have immediate effect. This inexplicable twist has left senior politicians and ordinary Bulgarians both mystified and enraged. Many are talking about ‘double standards’ and question why the former Prime Minister is allowed preferential treatment.

The issue is even more divisive because Simeon Saxe Coburg’s very right of owning those lands is in question. In 2003, the Bulgarian Parliament (controlled at the time by Simeon’s party) decided to return seized assets to the Royal family; the compensations included those 450 hectares of forest lands, for which, according to some politicians and most legal experts, there was absolutely no basis. Indeed, just weeks ago several senior Bulgarian officials threatened Simeon Saxe-Coburg with court actions for the ‘disproportional compensations’.

To learn more about Royal Family of Bulgaria, visit this thread.

Marsel Bulgarian Royals Government, Scandal, Simeon II

 Although his life was never controversy-free, Bulgaria’s former Tsar and Prime Minister found himself in the midst of not one but several allegations recently.

click to view the picture in TIME

Several Bulgarian officials threatened Simeon Saxe-Coburg with court actions because he had allegedly been given more than the double of compensation he was entitled to under the country’s restitution process. In 2003, the Bulgarian Parliament, which was controlled by Simeon’s party at the time, decided to return some of the assets of the former royal family. It was later alleged that the compensations included about 450 hectares of forest lands, for which, according to some politicians, there was absolutely no legal basis.

In an interview to Israeli “Maariv” newspaper, the former Tsar denied those assertions: “Who did the land belong to in the past 50 years? Certainly not people: those in power had them. And later, those properties were left without care and were in pitiful condition. What should have I done – spend money on them and their maintenance, or leave them without proper care? When in 1998 the court ruled that as a Bulgarian citizen I had a right to restitution, no one said anything against it. When we donated 90 hectares to Sofia city hall, no one argued we were in right to do so. But from the moment I entered the politics, my opponents have been searching for such things to blacken my reputation”.

In the same newspaper, Simeon Saxe-Coburg denied another allegation – that he’s a heavy gambler. The former Tsar said that he’s visited casinos only 3 times in his entire life, out of curiosity, and all 3 visits were documented. He added: “After I became Prime Minister, I was accused of being a gambler, a Russian spy, a greedy person, whose motivation to return to his motherland was merely to gain back former Crown properties: all those accusation are complete nonsense!” Read more…

Marsel Bulgarian Royals European Union, Government, Interview, Scandal, Simeon II

Click to see the images from PPE

  The Prince of Orange has met with former King Simeon II of Bulgaria at the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water Sanitation two days ago, at the 12th meeting of the board in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The Prince of Orange attended the four-day meeting as the UNSG Advisory Board on Water Sanitation’s Chairman of the Board. He is deeply interested in water and sanitation, often attending events and working to improve the sanitation conditions of the world.

One of the main topics of the meeting is improving access to clean drinking water and sanitation in the countries surrouding the Black Sea, where 13million people lack access to clean drinking water and a further 41million have no sanitation.

On the first day of the meeting, May 25, Prince Willem-Alexander met with the Bulgarian President, Georgi Paranov, in a bilateral meeting.

The Prince of Orange’s current events thread can be found here.

JessRulz Bulgarian Royals, Dutch Royals Bulgaria, President Parvanov, Prince of Orange, Prince Willem-Alexander, Simeon II, Water