At a time when the media have been busy with
\npoliticians in election pre-campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections of
\nDecember 11th and with ephemeral celebrities, the 95th
\nbirthday anniversary of Romania’s last ling went almost unnoticed. A special
\nconcert in honour of King Michael took place at the Romanian Athenaeum in
\nBucharest on Tuesday night. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The King’s eldest daughter, Her Royal Highness
\nand Custodian of the Romanian Crown Margareta spoke about the role of the
\nDynasty in the country’s history and about the moral code guiding the King his
\nentire life:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
His Majesty’s anniversary comes at a time when
\nthe Romanian Crown is celebrating 150 years in service of Romania’s history and
\nthe nation’s identity and continuity. King Michael has lived for almost 100
\nyears with the sense of duty, with faith and love for his country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
There has never been any trace of vanity in the
\nattitude of the last surviving World War II head of state. There has never been
\nany sign of self-worship in the discourse of this man with a remarkable
\nbiological longevity, who has made history and who, loyal to his democratic
\nprinciples and traditional alliances with the USA, Great Britain and France,
\nwas a relentless enemy of Nazism and communism, becoming undesirable for Hitler
\nand Stalin when he was barely 30 years of age. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Michael I was born on October 25th
\n1921 and acceded to the throne in September 1940. Considered immature and
\nmediocre, ignored and despised by the strongman of the time, general and later
\npro-German marshal Ion Antonescu, King Michael remained in Antonescu’s shadow
\nfor a long time. He never endorsed, but neither did he oppose any of
\nAntonescu’s errors, from his anti-Semitic policies to his decision to stay
\nloyal, at any cost, to the alliance with Nazi Germany and his commitments to
\nHitler. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
However, on August 23rd 1944, when
\nthe Red Army had already entered Romania and was threatening to erase Bucharest
\nfrom the map, the King, showing incredible courage, decided to arrest
\nAntonescu, take his country out of the Axis and join the anti-Nazi coalition.
\nToday, historians almost unanimously agree that King Michael’s decision
\nshattered the German war machine and cut the war short by half a year, thus
\npreventing casualties and material damage in Europe. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
King Michael was forced to step down and go
\ninto exile on December 30th 1947 at a time when the country was
\nruled by a puppet communist government and was practically under Soviet
\nmilitary occupation. To survive abroad, the deposed sovereign did not shy away
\nfrom manual labour to earn his living, repairing cars, working the land on a
\nfarm and raising chickens. The Securitate, the secret police of the communist
\nregime in Bucharest, kept constant track of him. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ousted and forced to leave the country when he
\nwas 26, the King was only able to return home when he was 75, after the
\ncollapse of the communist regime. The discretion, elegance and humbleness that
\nhave permanently characterised his public performance have earned him the
\nrespect of most Romanians. Many still wonder what Romania would have looked
\nlike today if the King had not abdicated in 1947, and without the communist
\ndictatorship and the incoherent transition that followed. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
King Michael I is the last surviving World War II head of state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":67699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[38684],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-70594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-king-michael-of-romania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n