by G.Onedin
Sinaia, Romania, October 25, 1921- the day when King Michael I, the son of the Heir Prince Carol II, was born.
Aubonne, Switzerland, December 5, 2017- the day when King Michael I of Romania died.
July 20,1927-June 8, 1930 and September 6, 1940-December 30, 1947 are the two periods when King Michael I was the king of Romania.
During his second reign, when he was anointed as king of Romania, the dark clouds of the WWI unfortunately were unfortunately in sight on Romania’s sky as well, while Europe was disturbed by its ugliness and atrocity, the year of 1940 marks the end of the Great Romania, which lost Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, Hertza, northeastern Transylvania and the Quadrilater in just several months, without any fight, without Romania’s consultation, only following some others’ deals. The king was compelled to co-exist with the legionary leadership, led by the authoritarian Marshal Ion Antonescu.
Romania was forced to fight in the WWI next to fascist Germany.
This happened until the moment when the balance of the war was reversed and the Soviet forces entered Romania.
The moment came when King Michael decided, together with the political forces which empatized with the Allies and, by the act of August 23, 1944 he assumed the responsibility to save Romania from a total collapse. This fact was materialized by arresting Marshal Ion Antonescu and by restaurating the Constitution of 1923.
The sovereign procclaimed Romania’s loyalty to the Allies, accepted the armistice offered by them, ordered the cease fire against the Allies, ordered the Romanian troops to withdraw south of Focsani-Galati alignment as soon as possible and declared war to Germany. From this moment until 1948, the year of leaving in exile, there was a period when King Michael’s profile turned into a nationl symbol of resistance, as he fought against the instauration of a new political system, a satellite of the Bolshevik rule from the Soviet Union.
On December 30, 1947 the king was forced to sign the abdication decree.
The beginning of January 1948 found King Michael amid preparations to leave the country, forced into exile, where he tried to plead the cause of his country.
But all proved to be in vain. Romania was used by the great powers at the card table of geopolitics, as a bargaining chip for Greece.
During the upcoming period, King Michael got married to princess Anne de Bourbonne-Parma and settled down to Versoix, Switzerland, after several wanderings.
After the anti-communist Revolution in 1989, the former sovereign intended to come back to the country. One more time, he was forced to face the neo-Bolshevik mentality and forces of the new Romanian rulers, who were just members of the Communist Party or members of the former Securitate political police, from the second or third echelon. Thus, he was stopped from returning to Romania by Ion Iliescu’s regime, except for the Easter in 1992, when he drew enthousiastic crowds who had come to see him. The people welcomed King Michael with a special sympathy. Over one million people took to the streets to see him in Bucharest.
Ex-president Iliescu’s government was concerned by the King’s popularity, so the former sovereign was banned from entering Romania for the coming 5 years. An episode of the ban took place on October 7, 1994, when, after landing on the airport, the King was invited to get back into the plane again, on the ground that „no visa is allowed at the moment”, which was of course a new abuse. In 1997, after Ion Iliescu was defeated in the presidential elections by Emil Constantinescu, endorsed by a centrist coalition, Romania activated the Romanian citizenship to King Michael and allowed him to re-visit his own country.
King Michael and Queen Anne lived in Aubonne, Switzerland since 2004, but they chose to spend the Christian holidays next to their beloved ones either at Savarsin Castle in Arad county or at the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, a palace which was made available to the royal couple by the decision of the Parliament.
After December 1989, King Michael was joyly and diligently dedicated to the activity of promoting and endorsing Romania’s efforts to enjoy its statute of country which belongs to Europe and to the modern world, he committed to help Romania gain its past and historical importance and regain its well-deserved place in the world’s history. King Michael I of Romania used to carry out an impressive lobby activity upon the international institutions and Romania succeeded in being accepted as a fully–fledged member of NATO and European Union.
Nevertheless, during this track of 27 years when the Romanian people had the great possibily and chance to recover its king and its historical importance, like a father who had been waiting for his prodigal son with open arms, it failed in seizing this moment, so that a real and long-expected family reunion of all the Romanians with their king could be carried out.
Many times, during our human life, we use the phrase that „various trains come up” in our lives and there are moments when, on the train platform of our life, we take advantage or not, we get in this train of life’s chances or not. This train cand be a freigh train, a passenger train, a slow train, an express train, a bullet train or more than that.
Such a train, a Royal Train, has stayed and waited in the Romanian nation’s Royal station for 27 years, with its egine on, with the stationmaster on the platform, with the conductor being careful to the moment when the only passenger of the train will have been on board and thus, he could have given the green light for the train embarking on route and on the great historical destiny of the new Romania.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t like that, the only passenger who should have got on the train of the Romanian nation, he hasn’t even managed to arrive at the station. More than that, with his journey being already paid with the many sacrifices of the people across its troubled history, he had earned the path offered by God to the redemption of the Romanian nation.
But, the miracle didn’t happen either, as indeed the accomplishment of this would have meant a miracle of the Romanian nation and the moment when the country would have started a new path, a path of a modern and clean Romania.
Unfortunately for the Romanians, Romania has remained under the influence of the same people involved in the political fight, with no interest in getting involved and in devoting their life to build and herald a modern, strong and respected country. I won’t call these guys politicians, to prevent this word from getting a negative meaning in the Romanian language. For to be a politician means a real involvement in leading a nation, in which case the national interest, of the people is above any personal or party interest. Which is not the case at present in Romania, because no person involved in politics or at the helm of the country is blessed with all these necessary assets and the plan of the great ideals is entirely missing from their consciousness and character.
To conclude in a manner so likeable to this people, I will use a term of a beloved TV ankler and I will quote him by these words:
People thirsty of laughs and roars,
You missed again
The meeting with the history’s great destiny.
On December 5, 2017, at 13:hr, the former sovereign passed away following a long suffering, in his private residence in Aubonne, Switzerland.
May God rest King Michael I of Romania in peace!
Farewell, Your Majesty!