This is a tougher question than it looks at face value. Simeon II returned to Bulgaria in 2000-01 with the intention of running for president. Unfortunately for him, the constitution has a five year residency requirement that he did not meet. Faced with this situation, he brought together the National Movement of Simeon II. This assemblage of various personalities ran on a plague-on-all-your-left/right-houses platform and won half the seats in parliament. This surprised everyone, even (according to some) Simeon, who now had to put together a government. This band of old names, young "technocrats," and others have largely carried out the same policies of the previous UDF (original democratic opposition) government. It places itself in the ELDR (liberals) in the European political space, and maybe this is the case, but one has to look hard to see it.

While some conspiracy theories have it that Simeon has made out like a bandit from his time in government, I don't see it. He seems like a genuinely good person with a sense of noblesse oblige of his position. He steered Bulgaria (along with a good Foreign Minister, Solomon Passi) during a difficult time in the runup to the Iraq War when Bulgaria was on the UN Security Council. We certainly could have done much worse.