10 mart. 2008

Prince Radu, Queen Anne, King Michael, Crown Princess Margarita, 18 December 2007, Bucharest.
Photograph by Valentin Mandache

The New Fundamental Rules of the Romanian Dynasty

An appraisal
by Diana Mandache

During the nearly five decades of Communist rule in their homeland, King Michael and his family almost lost hope of coming back to a democratic Romania. After the fall of Ceausescu’s dictatorship, the King tried unsuccessfully on several occasions between 1990 and 1991 to return to his country. The new authorities, in large part second-generation Communist apparatchiks, permitted him to return only for a short private visit in the spring of 1992, on Easter Day. Ion Iliescu, the country’s then president, and the government were too scared of the possibility that the monarchy would be restored through popular support. The 1996 elections in Romania brought a non-communist government to power for the first time since the King’s abdication. The immediate result a year later was the granting of Romanian citizenship to HM King Michael