On September 8, 1946, in the presence of Soviet troops, a referendum was held in Bulgaria. According to official results, out of 4,509,354 voters, 4,132,007 voters (91.63%) participated in the referendum, with 92.72% of those voting in favor of abolishing the monarchy and declaring the country a republic.
The results of the referendum were disputed by monarchists, who believed that the Red Army present on Bulgarian territory had influenced them. On September 15, 1946, the People's Republic of Bulgaria was proclaimed.
The illegitimate Tsar Simeon II, his mother Queen Joanna and his sister Princess Maria-Louise were forced to immediately (within a few days) leave the country. They went to Egypt, and in 1951 - to Spain.
In September 1946, Bulgaria, which was among the countries that lost the Second World War, was practically still occupied by Soviet troops and the referendum vote was far from our current understanding of a free vote. Behind the screen of the coalition government of the Fatherland Front, the new communist government did not touch with velvet gloves at all.
From December 1944 to April 1945, the so-called People's Court operated.
There they “judge” all people from the elite who cannot just “disappear without a trace”, as happens to many other people in the country. With this cruel blow, the Regency was destroyed, more than half of the 25th Ordinary National Assembly, representatives of the higher state administration, the economic and intellectual elite.
However, it is necessary to know that the abolition of monarchies in the countries defeated in the First and Second World Wars is a geopolitical process, largely directed by the victorious states.