King Michael of Romania will celebrate his 95th birthday in 25 October 2016. His most beloved Queen Anne of Romania (1923-2016), to whom His Majesty was married to since 10 June 1948, died on 1 August 2016. While he spends his days into the quiet village of Aubonne in Switzerland, his daugher, Princess Margareta of Romania, is the Custodian of the Romanian Crown, since 30 December 2017, and the de facto the head of the Royal House of Romania, since 1 March 2016. She will be 68 on 26 March 2017, the same age as King Michael in December 1989.
In December 1989, the Communist regime fell in Romania, but the new politic power didn’t allow King Michael to return. His attempts to visit the country he was forced to left on 3 January 1948, after a Communist-backed government forced him to abdicate on 30 December 1947, were stopped by the new politic power that took power after the fall of communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu: on 25 December 1990, going to the graves of his grandparents King Ferdinand I the Unifier (1914-1927) and Queen Marie of Romania and great-grandparents King Carol I (1866-1914) and Queen Elisabeth of Romania.
In 24-26 April 1992, from Good Friday to Easter Sunday (in the Greek Orthodox calendar), King Michael of Romania was allowed to visit Putna and Bucharest. He was greeted by two million Romanians, one million in Moldavia and one million in Bucharest (half of the city’s population!). 7 years at that time, Nicholas Michael de Roumanie Medforth-Mills (born 1 April 1985), first son of Princess Elena of Romania (born 15 November 1950 in Lausanne, Switzerland) and doctor Robin Medforth-Mills (1942-2002), accompanied his grandfather in his 72 hours visit. Despite having enough popular support to impose the restoration of monarchy at that time, the King decided to respect the terms he promised to the political power and leave the country, returning, once more, to exile.
It was the last time the political power of Communist tradition, represented by president Ion Iliescu (1990-1996) and prime-minister Theodor Stolojan (1991-1992), that followed prime-minister Petre Roman (1990-1991), son of an NKVD general Valter Roman that supported the fall of monarchy in Romania, allowed King Michael visit Romania. On 7 October 1994, King Michael was invited by the opposition at a historical conference regarding his role on 23 August 1944, when he decided to arrest pro-german prime-minister Ion Antonescu and stop the war against the Soviet Union, the United States of America and England. Arriving at Otopeni airport in Bucharest, he wasn’t allowed to pass by president Ion Iliescu and prime-minister Nicolae Văcăroiu (1992-1996), being forced to leave, despite there were thousands of people waiting for him at the airport.
On 11 November 1995 died Corneliu Coposu, leader of the opposition, political secretary to interbellum prime-minister Iuliu Maniu that was killed in prison by the Communist and lifetime friend of King Michael of Romania. The power didn’t allow King Michael to arrive at the funerals, having enough trouble with the fact that one million people participated at the funerals on 14 November 1995 (president Ion Iliescu left the country at that time). Only Queen Anne and Princess Margareta was allowed to participate, and, before the speeches at his funerals, due to the intervention of journalist Marilena Rotaru, a message of King Michael regarding his friend and political supporter Corneliu Coposu’s death.
The sympathy for the opposition doubled after Coposu’s death and, on 3 November 1996, the Democratic Convention („Convenţia Democratică”) won 30,7% votes and 37,06% seats in the Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber) and 30,17% votes and 35,57% seats in the Senate (upper chamber). The figures of the power were: 23,08% votes and 28,67% seats in the lower chamber; 21,52% votes and 26,53% seats in the upper chamber. Two weeks later, on 17 November 1996, the candidate of the Democratic Convention, Emil Constantinescu, won with 7.057.906 votes (54,41%) against Ion Iliescu, with 5.914.579 votes (45,59%).
On 25 February 1997, the government led by prime-minister Victor Ciorbea annulled the decree that took away the King’s Romania citizenship, decree given by the Communist government on 22 May 1948 and maintained by the governments of Petre Roman, Theodor Stolojan and Nicolae Văcăroiu. On 1 March 1997, King Michael finally returned to Romania, receives a new passport and, on 4 March, the King and president Emil Constantinescu agreed the Royal House of Romania will suport Romania’s candidature for the North Atlanic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union (EU).
To be continued.
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