In an official ceremony which took place on Monday at the residence of Henry Paul, French Ambassador to Romania, Princess Margarita was awarded Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honour) of the French Republic with the rank of ‘Knight’. Their Majesties King Michael and Queen Anne, as well as Prince Radu of Romania were present during the ceremony.

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The honour was conferred by President Nicolas Sarkozy in a decree of July 8, 2009. National Order of the Legion of Honour is the highest decoration in France. The distinction was given in recognition of the Crown Princess’s humanitarian activity, in particular her Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation.

The Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation, which was established in 1990, is a non-profit organization that has significantly contributed to the development of civil society in Romania. The Foundation develops programs to improve the living conditions of children and young people, destitute families and elderly, to stimulate intergenerational solidarity, and similar issues.

In her recognition speech (which the Crown Princess delivered in perfect French), Princess Margareta spoke of the needs and issues of the disadvantages sections of Romania. She also expressed gratitude to the people of France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States and Belgium (countries where the foundation currently operates) for their ongoing and unwavering support throughout the years.

The Crown Princess thanked the Ambassador and President Sarkozy for the award that recognized the team work of the Foundation and highlighted the role France played in the forming and development of Romania, starting with the first formation of the Romanian state, to modern times.

Marsel Romanian Royals France, Orders, Princess Margarita, Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation

Just days ago it emerged that the support ratings of Prince Radu’s presidential campaign hit double digits for the first time. That, however, was apparently not enough to keep the husband of Crown Princess Margarita of Romania in fight for Cotroceni Palace: yesterday, Prince Radu announced that his campaign is over.

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The Prince said he was very sad to make the decision but had ‘hopes for the future’. He maintained that the election campaign was not a fair race but merely a fight between different political clans: “Most Romanian politicians act as though the state and public institutions are personal goods. The current president began the process of privatization of the Romanian state. The next president will continue it”.

Radu Duda announced his intention to fun for Presidency in April and registered as an independent candidate, without links to or support of any political party. At the time, Prince Radu declared that should he be successful, he would not seek to restore the Monarchy.

Former King Michael of Romania supported both his son-in-law’s campaign and his decision to end it.

You can read more about the Royal Family of Romania in this thread.

Marsel Romanian Royals Government, Prince Radu, Princess Margarita, Public Opinion

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According to a face-to-face survey ran by Gallup Romania, the support rating of Prince Radu Duda, the husband of Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, has hit double digits for the first time since he launched his presidential campaign in April 2009. Nearly 12% of the Romanians who took part in the survey said they plan to vote for Prince Radu in the 2009 Romanian Presidential Elections. In a separate survey, almost 14.5% of Romanians picked Radu Duda as the candidate they trust most.

The Office for Social Research’s poll released today has slightly different data and predicts Prince Radu will get from 6 to 9% of the votes.

Both figures are notably higher than the 2% approval rating Prince Radu had at the beginning of his campaign. Although President Traian Basescu is still comfortably in the lead, Prince Radu and Antonescu are the only candidates whose ratings has gone up since the last survey: all other candidates suffered considerable loss of trust among the voters.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview HSH Karl Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen demanded Prince Radu should stop using the name Hohenzollern. The Hereditary Prince maintains that his father, HSH Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, had no right to grant Prince Radu an ad personam ‘name’ of “Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen” and called Radu Duda’s usage of the title a “farce”.

Neither the spokesman for the Romanian Royal Family, nor spokesman of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm commented on Hereditary Prince’s interview.

Marsel Romanian Royals Government, Interview, President Basescu, Prince Radu, Princess Margarita, Public Opinion

 After two days of intense diplomatic activity, yesterday Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia had time to make cultural and charity visits and also meet with others royals.

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They went to the National Museum of Bucharest where they visited an important medieval Exhibition. Afterwards they visited Centro San Marcelino Champanat of Los Hermanos Maristas, a center in Bucharest that developed a program to help children and youth.

San Marcelino Champanat was a French priest who founded the Hermanos Maristas  in 1817. They are a religious order consecrated to God, whose motto is “follow Jesus in the Way that Mary did”. Maristics Brothers live in the community and are dedicated in a special way to the education of children and youth, specially the most neglected ones.

Maristics Brothers settled in Romania in 1998 and in 2004 they opened their first charity house with the aim of taking children from the streets and helping with their education. Currently 4300 Maristics Brothers work worldwide.

At the end of their visit to San Marcelino Center, Felipe and Letizia had a private meeting with Prince Radu and Princess Margarita of Romania at Elisabeta Palace.

Paty Romanian Royals, Spanish Royals Official Visit, Prince Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Prince Radu, Princess Letizia, Princess Margarita, Princess of Asturias, Romania

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 Crown Princess Margarita of Romania celebrated her 60th birthday on March 26th in grand style. The princess was surprised by her husband, prince Radu. The prince has organised a dinner at the Cece palace in Bucharest that was attended by the family and many friends of the princess. Among them the crown prince of Serbia, his wife crown princess Katherine, archduke Domenic of Austria-Tuscany and archdukes Martin and Lorenz of Austria-Este. 

When the princess started a welcome speech to the guests she was still somewhat emotional by the surpise, as she shared with the guests. In her speech the princess thanked her guests for coming and especially welcomed crown prince Alexander of Serbia, who is in a simular situation as the Romanian royal family.  The crown princess’  parents king Michael and queen Anne were also present as were two sisters of the princess and her nephew and niece, Nicholas and Elisabeth de Roumanie Medforth-Mills.

The birthday celebrations lasted three days, on friday the guests made a tour at the royal estate of Sinai, where they visited Pelesh and Pelishor castle. Later that day they attended a performance at the Ateneul  Roman, the concert building in Bucharest.

Prince Radu posted many pictures of the festivities on his website, you can find them here.

Marengo Romanian Royals Birthday, King Michael, Prince Radu, Princess Margarita, Queen Anne