Syndicated Column by Marc S. Ellenbogen
Published in ”The Washington Times”
                  
BUCHAREST, Romania, April 1 (UPI) – The honor guard stood in full
regalia as King Michael and Queen Anne strode the staircase to their
waiting guests. The media in tow, the cameras flashing, Crown Princess
Margarita and Prince Radu, who has just announced he is running for
president of Romania, followed close behind. I had already entered the
imposing hall. Last month, Margarita turned a youthful 60.

Seventy-five selected guests were hosted for a two-and-a-half day
soiree. It included royals, nobles and personalities from public life,
art and academia. It was a magnificent balance of esprit de corps and
jubilation. It was classical music, gala opera and disco. It was, in
short, a wonderful tribute to a very worthy lady from her loving
husband, family and friends.
History in former communist countries has not been kind to royals and
nobles or their families. Restitution has been slow if at all. Jealousy
abounds among former apparatchiks. False claims by royal pretenders and
their allies – which have been seen in Romania – have complicated
matters.

His Majesty King Michael is a widely admired figure. The 85-year-old
monarch is the last living royal to have led a country during World War
II. He was forced to abdicate by a puppet regime close to the Nazis.
However, in his early 20s, showing great courage, the young king
returned and helped to topple the Nazis toward the end of the war
before being forced out again by the Communists. The king and his
family lived in exile in Geneva, Switzerland, until the 1990s.

The royal family was recently restituted the lovely Pelesh Castle in
Sinaia, some 100 kilometers from Bucharest, where the king spent much
of his youth. Sinaia is strangely where the same Communists who stole
his property also went on holiday. Many properties, and the role of the
royal family, remain in dispute to this very day.

In the mid-1990s, President Emil Constantinescu helped the royals but
had little political clout as an independent. President Ion Iliescu
came to the king’s cause late because his party was full of former
apparatchiks. A well-known case of a royal pretender has complicated
matters in Romania. This same group and others – and they are truly
uninformed and just plain wrong – have spread nasty rumors trying to
link King Michael and royal family with anti-Semitism. It is utter
hogwash.

King Michael has visited Israel and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
He has dedicated himself to helping Jewish families in Romania and
elsewhere. As the sixth recipient of the Prague Society and Global
Panel’s Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award, his majesty passed the
financial portion of some $10,000 to Petrisor Ostafie, a young AIDS
campaigner with human immunodeficiency virus who has fought bitter
prejudice in Romania to muster support for his cause. King Michael has
a long history of being down-to-earth, thoughtful, kind and benevolent
– traits he and Queen Anne have passed on to Margarita.

On a recent trip with Prince Radu, the crown princess’s consort, to the
Marmara Foundation in Istanbul, Turkey, I was struck by how superb a
representative Radu is for his beloved Romania. The Marmara Foundation
is linked to former Turkish President Suleyman Demirel. It will be
hosting the 12th Eurasian Economic Summit from May 6 to 8. The primary
focus will be energy security. Already the likes of Germany’s Kurt
Bodewig, Morocco’s Hassan Abouyoub, the United Kingdom’s Lord Pearson
of Rannoch and a host of presidents and prime ministers have confirmed
attendance.

During a private dinner in Istanbul, Radu and I were able to talk about
Romania’s future – a conversation that continued on this occasion in
Bucharest. We spoke long about how to fight corruption in the country.
We spoke about the United States’ relationship with Russia. We covered
the Nabucco and Blue Stream pipeline projects. As a country that sits
on the Black Sea, Romania is an indispensable partner for
energy-security issues.

The Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation has raised more than $6.7
million in support of the poor and downtrodden, the young, education,
community development, civic society and people with HIV in a country
where having HIV is tantamount to being a leper. Princess Margarita has
great passion for her country, a country she was only allowed to
embrace later in life. Her university mates from Edinburgh, Scotland,
were unanimous in their praise of Margarita and the royal family for
their long support of Romania – even whilst she was impoverished and in
exile.

The royal family’s story is one from riches to rags to some riches. In
some ways, it is like a fairy tale. But the disenfranchisement was
particularly hard and painful. Without friends, many of whom attended
the jubilee, the royal family’s exile would have been exceptionally
difficult. King Michael supported his family by becoming a pilot and
mechanic. Even at 85, he loves to drive his car.

As the jubilee weekend came to an end, I spoke briefly with the gritty Queen Anne.

She is very proud of her daughter’s achievements and thoughtful about Romania’s future.

A future in which the royal family has a rightful place.

(UPI international columnist Marc S. Ellenbogen is chairman of the
Berlin, Copenhagen and Sydney-based Global Panel Foundation and
president of the Prague Society. He has advised political candidates
and public officials, and is a founding trustee of the Democratic Expat
Leadership Council at the U.S. Democratic Party.)