Saison für Könige!
Season for Kings!

Summary/Abstract: After the collapse of Communism former royals in exile demanded the restitution of their possessions, but some of them even cla imed their return to power offering support for their countries' development and integration in Western civilization. Most of the East European reform countries denied the need of former royals, whereas the more backward countries in the Balkans welcomed some role for their royal pretenders while refusing the return to monarchy. In three countries - Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria -; the royals found a prominent, but quite different role: Crown Prince Aleksander Karadjordjevic contributed to the collapse of the Milosevic regime by supporting the opposition in a decisive moment, but did not yet find a prominent role in the current period of Serbia's transition. Romania's former King Michael became too old to seize power while finding himself misused by his postcommunist opponent President Iliescu to popularize the latter's regime to the Romanian nation and to the West. Only in Bulgaria King Simeon succeeded to return to power but not as king or president but as prime minister risking to fail confronted with the intrigues of his opponents and the enormous problems of his country. The result: it's season for kings, but not for monarchy!

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