08 nov. 2014

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

What a privilege it is to speak to you today at such a remarkable, influential gathering of people,who have such an impressive knowledge of current world affairs.

Although our host is an organisation active in cultural diplomacy, and although quite a number of the speakers are from civil society, academia, and the media, one cannot help but note that the vast majority of the speeches are highly political. However, this is perfectly normal in a democratic space such as the European Union. Therefore, it will probably not go amiss if we now turn to a completely different topic, albeit one still related to politics, namely the extraordinary one-hundred-and-fifty-year story of the Royal House of Romania.

The story demonstrates how, in an emerging democracy such as Romania’s, there are unexpected, original kinds of democratically compatible cohabitation that can sometimes be beneficial to a country’s future.

I would also like to say that I feel very fortunate to be here in Berlin, one of Europe’s most important capitals, a city historically inseparable from the most extraordinary economic success story of all time, a city home to the most incredible scientific achievements over the centuries and, not least, to some of the world’s finest art. 

And so, it gives me cause to feel very fortunate to stand before you and talk about Romania in a way you have probably never heard before, since what I am about to tell you is rather different from the things you are probably used to hearing about my country.

For a number of reasons, in today’s Romania the Crown holds a rather different position than its European counterparts.

The main reason may be that the Royal House of Romania is — by historical standards — a very young institution. It encompasses just five generations, including our own, which means that it is linked only to the democratic part of our history. Romanian society sees the Crown as having been a catalyst in the process of the country’s democratisation and emancipation. 

With reference to the title of this conference, during one hundred and fifty years of service to the nation my family-in-law has constantly tried to break down the walls between my country and the rest of Europe. 

Carol I, a German born prince, was just twenty-seven years old in 1866 when he arrived in Romania and was unanimously elected head of state by the Romanian Parliament. Carol did not share the religious denomination of his new country and nor did he speak her language. But forty-seven years later this man had managed to put Romania on the European map. His is an inspirational story of almost five decades of inexhaustible vision, impeccable professionalism, ethics, selfless dedication, and untiring work. He patiently set about creating every single institution that now makes it possible for Romania to be an integral part of the European Union.

His wife, Queen Elisabeth, a German-born princess, was an extraordinary precursor of the values of the European Union. She spoke seven European languages fluently and wrote more than fifty books in different languages, uniting Eastern and Western Europe in spirit. She was an astounding trailblazer in the social sphere, nurturing children, orphans, the blind, the deaf, and the disadvantaged, demonstrating to mid-nineteenth-century society through the power of personal example the virtues of compassion, love, trust, a sense of duty, and unswerving loyalty. Such values could certainly not be instilled merely through elections or the exercise of political power.

King Ferdinand and Queen Marie, the second generation of the Romanian Royal Family, achieved for Romanians the Great Union — the unification of all the historical Romanian provinces. Romanians today view them as parents of the country. And Romanians from the Republic of Moldova feel exactly the same way. Romania and the Republic of Moldova may quarrel over presidents, prime ministers, parliaments, and language, but nobody in the Republic of Moldova questions the parents of the nation: Stephen the Great, Ferdinand the Loyal, and Marie the Mother of the Wounded.

Marie, a British born princess who became the Queen of Romania, overcame the political obduracy of two chauvinist, republican French statesmen: President Raymond Poincare and Prime Minister Rene Clemenceau. She was the first woman to be elected a member of the Academie de Beaux Arts and she astonished the world by travelling with her children to two Muslim countries in the late 1920s: the Republic of Turkey and the Sultanate of Morocco. In 1926, she also “conquered” the United States of America with her charm, intelligence and political skills. Three hundred thousand New Yorkers thronged the streets of Manhattan to greet her. And she addressed to the economic leaders of the States the following unusual plea: “Businessmen of the United States, come and invest in my country”. 

King Carol II, an erudite and intelligent Sovereign who had the ill fortune to hold power at precisely the same time as Hitler and Stalin, in the tragic 1930s, still managed, against the odds, to build a robust industrial sector, to preside over an unparalleled upsurge in the cultural, scientific and diplomatic spheres, and to preside over some remarkable architectural achievements. 

It was during his dramatic reign that Romania produced writers and philosophers of world renown, such as Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran and Eugen Ionescu, scholars such as George Emil Palade, and artists such as Ionel Perlea, Sergiu Celibidache and Constantin Brancusi.

Another wonderful woman was Queen Helen of Romania, who was twice to endure exile. As the Queen Mother, in the 1940s she stood by her son, King Michael, during one of the most atrocious decades in the continent’s history. 

Although she did not hold any constitutional power, this frail, beautiful woman managed to save the lives of one hundred thousand Romanians of Jewish origin, who would otherwise have been deported to Transnistria. Today, she is recognised as one of the Righteous Among the Nations at the Yad Vashemin Jerusalem. 

And, last but not least, how extraordinary is the destiny and work of His Majesty King Michael, my father-in-law, who recently celebrated his ninety-third birthday. Think of it! This man was born in 1921, in the same year as the founding of the Romanian Communist Party. And today he is able to celebrate with you the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of communism. 

Aged twenty-three the King stood against fascism and communism in his country, and he tried to salvage as much as he could, when all seemed lost. During the four decades of the Cold War he was for Romanians a beacon of democracy; he was the only hope for freedom we had. My generation still remembers the Christmas speeches he broadcast to his fellow countrymen over Radio Free Europe.

Extraordinarily enough, King Michael is the longest-lived monarch in the world today, having been crowned eighty-eight years ago. After 1997, every Romanian government, whether socialist, Christian democrat or liberal, asked him to serve in the frontline of his country’s efforts to achieve NATO and EU membership. What an extraordinary thing! Here is a man older than both NATO and the European Union, the only acting head of state during the Second World War still alive today. In 1945, the King led his soldiers, when they braved death to liberate large swathes of Europe. Sixty years later, in 2005, he drove his own car through Europe, from Timisoara to Prague, stopping at every cemetery where his soldiers were buried, so that he could lay flowers and light candles in their memory. 

With grace and determination, Crown Princess Margareta continues the legacy of her ancestors. For twenty-five years, she has restored the Crown to usefulness and relevance in a post-communist society that lacked pride, knowledge of its own identity, and self-respect. With infinite patience and tact, Her Royal Highness has engaged in highly appreciated social work, she has established cultural and social programmes, and she has continuously advanced the royal agenda in the Romanian community both at home and abroad.

It is therefore easy to understand why today, in the year 2014, Romanians look to the Crown with respect, admiration and hope. The King, the Queen and the Crown Princess top the opinion polls in terms of trust, admiration, and national affection. People probably need this complementary leadership, one that is based on the power of personal example, on historical legitimacy, on continuity and loyalty.

The King and the Royal Family do not hold political power; they have always based their contribution on a different and exceptionally important type of power, which is the opposite of political power. 

Today, the fifth generation of the Royal Family, represented by Crown Princess Margareta, holds an extraordinary and somewhat contradictory position in a country which, constitutionally, remains a republic, but which has been building something that could well be defined as a “Functional Monarchy”. Every incoming government has been willing to keep, and often to deepen, this institutional co-operation with the Royal Family. Wherever a royal event takes place, to encourage the economy, education, bilateral diplomacy, sport, the arts, or science, the Royal Family is welcomed with respect and pride, with a sense of dignity and the deep conviction that it belongs to the national interest. 

So, when I started this speech by declaring that I am fortunate and privileged to be here, it was not merely flattery. The fact that for twenty minutes I have been able to share such a topic with you, one that is more than just a couple of ideas, but rather a major part of my life, is a considerable privilege, for which I thank you.