Custodian of the Crown’s address to Romanian Parliament

 On Wednesday, 26 April 2017, Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown, gave a speech at the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies to mark the city of Iasi’s centenary as Capital of the Kingdom of Romania, 1916-1918, and City of the Great Union, and also to commemorate the centenary of the agrarian law and electoral law, reforms that were passed by the Senate and Assembly of Deputies during the period in which they sat in the city of Iasi.

Prince Radu was in attendance alongside the Crown Princess. Princess Maria also took part.

The solemn session was followed by an event in the main foyer of the Chamber of Deputies to launch a philatelic album containing postage stamps and a medal to mark the Iasi’s centenary as City of the Great Union, 1916-1918.

During the First World War, Parliament withdrew from occupied Bucharest to Iasi and the political actions it undertook there and the legislative measures it passed were instrumental in reforming and modernising the Romanian State. At the same time they were the result of a joint effort on the part of all the parties represented in the Constituent Assembly and, as King Ferdinand I himself put it in his speech at the opening of the new session of Parliament on 15 December 1917, “a work of national solidarity”.

The address of the Custodian of the Romanian Crown to the joint session of the Parliament of Romania, 26 April 2017

Chairman of the Senate,

Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies,

Members of Parliament,

One century ago, King Ferdinand led the country during the most onerous and magnificent period in our history. My great-grandfather earned the title of the Unifier because he fought alongside his brave soldiers and nation to achieve the Romanians’ dream: the Great Union.

The session held today by the Parliament of Romania, the institution on which our democracy and freedoms rest, also has another profound meaning: besides honouring the past, today’s event shows that in an uncertain world full of dangers Romania is an intelligent, stable country, which treasures continuity, which builds the future on the foundations of the past, and which is capable of providing the rest of the continent with an example of measure and balance.

To pay homage to our kings, to commemorate the army’s sacrifice, and to show gratitude to the Romanian nation is therefore a patriotic and civic duty. But it is not only that. To speak of the turning point that Romania achieved one hundred years ago is a means of building the future.

To me, today’s session of Parliament is more than a commemoration; it is an inspiration for the future. King Ferdinand and Queen Marie are the parents of our modern history. If we succeed in rising to the moral stature of our forefathers, we will be victorious in the present and will be able to write our own future.

So help us God!

©Daniel Angelescu, His Majesty King Michael’s Household