Throne of Romania

Princess Margarita of Romania

Princess Margarita of Romania (Margareta in the Romanian language), Princess of Hohenzollern (styled Crown Princess of Romania) (b. at Lausanne, March 26, 1949) is the eldest daughter of Michael I (Mihai), King of Romania (now deposed), Prince of Hohenzollern, and of his wife, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma. She is in the line of succession to the British throne. Her father named her the heiress to the private royal family in 1997. She has no children. Her heiress is her next sister, Princess Elena of Romania. According to the last democratic royal Constitution, that of 1923, which established succession by salic law, Margarita and her sisters cannot succeed to the throne of Romania (see also "Line of succession to the Romanian throne").

On December 30, 2007, King Michael designated Princess Margarita as heiress to the throne with the titles of "Crown Princess of Romania" and "Custodian of the Romanian Crown" through an act which, during the republican form of government and in the absence of its approval by the Parliament, has an eminently symbolic importance, an act considered by some editorialists as undemocratic. On the same occasion, Michael also asked the Romanian Parliament that, should it consider restoring the Monarchy, it should also abolish the salic law of succession.

Private life

On September 21 1996 in Lausanne Margarita married Radu Duda, also known as "HRH Prince Radu of Romania" since December 30, 2007, and as "Radu, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" since January 1, 1999, future "Prince Consort of Romania", who either in her company or most often alone, represents the Royal Family publicly on various occasions. In her youth at the University of Edinburgh, Margarita was involved in a romantic relationship with Gordon Brown, who was later to become the British Prime Minister. Margarita said about it: "It was a very solid and romantic story. I never stopped loving him but one day it didn't seem right any more, it was politics, politics, politics, and I needed nurturing.

Education and work

After graduation from the University of Edinburgh, she worked in a number of British universities, specialising in medical sociology and public health policy, later on participating in an international research program coordinated by the World Health Organisation, focused on developing health policy recommendations and preventive pilot projects. In 1983 she moved to Rome and joined the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (UN), where, as a member the World Food Day project team, she worked on the public awareness campaign concerning agricultural programs, nutrition, and poverty alleviation. Three years later she joined the International Fund for Agricultural Development. In the autumn of 1989 she gave up her UN career and moved to Geneva to work with her father, devoting herself entirely to charity work for Romania.

In 1990 Princess Margarita founded The Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation, a non-profit organisation that has contributed to the development of civil society in Romania.

Currently active in 6 countries (Romania, United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Belgium and the US) the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation develops programs that:

improve the living conditions of children and young people, families at risk and the elderly;
stimulate intergenerational solidarity and create bridges of communication between the young and the elderly;
contribute to the institutional development of NGOs working with children and seniors;
foster local creativity and talent.

During its existence, The Princess Margarita Foundation has collected more than 5 million Euro, through which it has contributed to the development of the Romanian civil society.

Controversies

In February 1990, l'Humanité wrote that Margarita was prevented by the Bucharest airport customs officers from smuggling out of Romania several paintings belonging to the national patrimony, which she had apparently hidden in her luggage.

BAE Systems, one of the donors to her charity, and its representatives, have been involved in a corruption scandal regarding the purchase by the Romanian Government of two decommissioned UK Royal Navy frigates refurbished by BAE, for which an alleged £ 7 million bribe was paid, some of which, it is also alleged, ended up in the pockets of the royal family of Hohenzollern to which Margarita belongs. The "Gardianul" newspaper, noting that both Princess Margarita and her husband, as Special Representative of the Government, had met a number of times with the BAE Systems representatives before and after the signing of the governmental contract, inquired whether the royal family was involved in any lobbying on behalf of the company. In an official communique sent to the newspaper, Prince Radu denied any such lobbying activities, stating that as patron of the British-Romanian Chamber of Commerce in which BAE Systems is a member, he met with this as well as other British companies' representatives.

Political support

The main pro-monarchist party PNŢCD, currently extra-parliamentarian, is ambiguous in its support for Princess Margarita. In 2002, it rejected any role for her or her husband in a restored monarchy, while in 2003 the Cluj branch of PNŢCD officially invited her to be its electoral candidate to the Senate of the Republic in the upcoming elections.

The British expert in Romanian politics and history and Encyclopaedia Britannica editor Tom Gallagher reported that The Prince of Wales was offered the Romanian Throne, supposedly by Romanian monarchists, an offer which was reportedly turned down by Charles. Despite this, King Michael has not given up the hope for himself or his family of returning on the throne: "We are trying to make people understand what Romanian monarchy was and what it can still do."