Romanian King Mihai (Michael) on Thursday welcomed 12 former post-communist heads of state from East- and Central-Europe for an anniversary dinner at the Royal Palace in Bucharest. At the dinner were also Crown Princess Margareta, her husband Prince Radu, and Prince Nicolae.
The King, who was deposed by the Romanian communists in 1947, earlier on the day had Crown Princess Margareta read a poignant speech in Parliament in which he looked back to 1927, when he first became King of Romania, and to 1921, his year of birth and the year the Romanian communist party was founded.
In 1927, on the death of my grandfather, King Ferdinand, I was proclaimed King of Romania. In the eighty-seven years since then, I have been a direct witness of the rise and fall of both fascism and communism, two criminal systems that left in their wake more than one hundred million dead and many more millions maimed in body and soul.
My life has been one of long and loyal waiting: waiting for Europe to come to its senses, waiting for Romania to be restored to itself. Patience can sometimes be a weapon against historic destiny. Waiting and faith. Love and the sense of duty.
But in my long life I have also known blessed moments. God willed that I be in the front line of my country’s return to the dignified family of free nations, through Romania’s accession to full membership of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
My family and I have laboured greatly in the last twenty-five years, since the Fall of Communism, for a democratic, prosperous, free and dignified Romania. We shall not cease to do so until the end of our days, since we are convinced that the institution of the Royal House is part of our identity as a state and a nation.
Communism was born in Romania in the same year as I was, in 1921. More than nine decades later, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to address you now, in celebrating its fall.
So help us God!
King Mihai received former presidents of Albania (2), Belarus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Moldova, Poland (Lech Walesa), Romania (Emile Constantinescu), Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine (2).
On Wednesday the King celebrated his 93rd birthday with a brief appearance on the palace balcony. Although his actuel birthday was in October and his name day was on November 8, the King waited till after the Romanian presidential elections to appear again in public in order not to influence the elections in any way.
President-elect Klaus Iohannis was welcomed to the palace for lunch. The new president paid tribute to the strength and dedication of the monarch and invited him to attend his inauguration, a far cry from president Ion Iliescu who prevented the King from returning to his native country after the fall of communism in 1989.
© Royalblog, Hans Jacobs; Screenshot: Adevarul
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