Crown Custodian, Princess Margareta, sends Christmas message: In the coming months I will announce the steps to continue my father’s work

Princess Margareta, Crown Custodian, wrote in the Christmas message that “in the next period, in agreement with the state authorities,” she will present “the steps to continue the work of her father” King Michael I.

“Romanians,

For many decades, passing through the darkest days of the war and the communist dictatorship that followed, King Michael sent every year a message to the nation on this day. From my early childhood I remember the care my father wrote these speeches and the anxiety when trying to decide which word was best. The Christmas message was the only form of direct communication with the Romanians, which he had sworn to protect and defend, during the cold days of the exile; it was, actually, the Holy Communion with all Romanians.

This is our first Christmas without King Michael, but this year, while celebrating the birth of the Saviour, we also commemorate the life and fulfilment of the fourth monarch of the modern Romanian State. History will inevitably give its verdict on the reign of King Michael. But the extraordinary atmosphere of the King’s funeral, the way the whole nation was united in pain upon its passing to the world of righteousness, is the sign that the present time has already given its verdict on the reign of King Michael the Constant and the Righteous.

We will never forget the devotional simple gestures of the millions of Romanians who had the soul in mourning for the demise of the King, we will not forget the people who have aligned themselves on the sidewalk of the roads and the railroads on his last road, some holding a single flower, others a small national flag or the family Bible, the school classes along the funeral convoy, headed by their teachers, the students at St. Sava high school, my father’s school, who came to the Throne Hall to be with the King for a moment.

I will never forget the unifying response of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel and of our entire Church, that of the President, Parliament, Government, and our entire political class, along with that of high elected representatives from across the Prut River, when my father raised to Heaven. I know that nothing would give King Michael any more satisfaction than our whole nation standing together. And I assure you that all the Heads of State who came to Bucharest to be near the King on his last journey immediately realized that they were in front of a nation united in suffering, united in the pride of their own ambitions and determined on its future.

Despite the fact that we must never forget King Michael, the Constant and the Righteous, it is our duty to look to the future. The Royal Family will continue, with the same effort, to support and strengthen the interests of our country. In the coming months, in consonance with the state authorities, I will announce a number of steps to continue my father’s work.

I would like to end this Christmas message with a phrase of my grandfather, King Carol II, said on the day when Prince Michael was becoming Officer with the Romanian Army, exactly 80 years ago: “It’s not where you started that matters,” King Carol II told the young under-Lieutenant Mihai, “but where you reach, by your own merits and work.”

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Savarsin Castle, Christmas 2017”