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

 On the back of Prince Henrik’s extravagant 75th birthday celebrations yesterday and the day before, statistics compiled by Rambøll for Jyllands-Posten have shown that while all the royal family has dropped in approval ratings, it is Queen Margrethe II’s husband and younger son who have dropped their approval ratings dramatically since 2004.

The stats, released yesterday, show that the Danish public have lost confidence in how the two men handle their public roles. Henrik’s approval rating is down 12%, from 41.8% in 2004 to 29.8% this year. A further 30.7% believe that the 75-year-old has been doing a poor job.

But it is Prince Joachim’s approval rating that has essentially snowballed over the past five years. Back in 2004, when the Prince was still married to the Countess of Frederiksborg (the poll was taken before their divorce was announced), Joachim enjoyed at 84.6% approval rating. Today, it stands at nearly half that, at 44.6%. Joachim’s second wife, Princess Marie, has an equally dismal approval rating of almost 37%.

The heir to the Danish throne, Crown Prince Frederik, dropped 10% in his approval rating, from 90.7% to 80.4%. His wife, Crown Princess Mary – who did not appear in 2004 poll – broke into the fold with a rating higher than her husband’s, at 82.2%. Mary also slightly surpassed her mother-in-law in ratings, with Queen Margrethe receiving a 81.3% rating.

JessRulz Danish Royals Margrethe II, Prince Frederik, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort, Prince Joachim, Princess Marie, Princess Mary, Public Opinion

Click to see photo and article at London Telegraph

Monaco’s 51 year old sovereign is only 4 years into his reign and he is already facing a “mutiny” in the face of mounting criticism of the his behavior.  In the reign of Prince Albert II’s father, Prince Rainier III it was very rare to see public criticism of the sovereign but the Prince’s government and the people of Monaco seem to be concerned about their Prince’s priorities. When reporters came looking for information, people would often walk away and refuse to be interviewed.

Today’s London Telegraph shows just how different times are.  The article notes that citizens dislike that the Prince ”treats Monaco like his holiday home…He pops in for a few weeks, then dashes off on another long jaunt.” While the Prince does seem to take more holidays than his father some allowance must be made for the fact that Prince Rainier III was ill and unable to travel for much of the latter part of his reign.  For the most part, his travels do bring good press and tourists to Monaco. Read more…

Sg1Fan Monaco Royals European Union, Prince Albert II, Public Opinion

From TRF Avatar Gallery

 Princess Mathilde was voted the most popular and best future Queen-consort in Europe by a poll of the French royalty magazine Point de Vue. She received 47,8% of the votes, and led the poll by a large margin. Second in the poll was the Dutch Princess Máxima (21,1%), closely followed by Letizia, the Princess of Asturias (17,8%). Only 10% of the votes went to Mary and Mette-Marit of Norway got less than 3%. According to PdV, Princess Mathilde won because of her softness, charm, and competences.

PdV also made a list of most popular queens, which is headed by Queen Sofia of Spain (54,1%), followed by Queen Silvia of Sweden (26,4%) and Queen Paola of Belgium (14,1%).

Of course, this is only the opinion of those who voted in the polls… with which I just mean to say that this poll can best be viewed as a reflection of the opinion of the PdV readership, it is not necessarily the opinion of all the royalty lovers around the globe. Nevertheless, it is a great honour for Princess Mathilde that she is so popular. Only recently, she was named one of Vanity Fair’s best Dressed, and she also got an award from Belgian Elle.

See here for an article about this in Dutch.
See here for more info about Mathilde, Máxima, Letizia, Mary and Mette-Marit.
See here for more information about Queen Sofia, Queen Silvia, and Queen Paola.

LadyLeana Belgian Royals, Danish Royals, Dutch Royals, Norwegian Royals, Spanish Royals, Swedish Royals Princess Letizia, Princess Mary, Princess Mathilde, Princess Máxima, Princess Mette-Marit, Public Opinion, Queen Paola, Queen Silvia, Queen Sofia

Last week’s announcement by the Swedish royal court that Crown Princess Victoria was engaged to her long-time boyfriend Daniel Westling brought much joy (and many cheers of “Finally!”) to the Swedes and royal-watchers around the globe. But in the aftermath of the announcement, the crucial question of who will pay for the royal wedding of 2010 has been brought up in the Swedish parliament.

The current Swedish government has expressed that if approached by the royal court for more funds in next year’s budget to pay for the royal wedding – estimated to cost at least 10 million Swedish Krona – they will allow extra money to be provided. But opposition comes from Sweden’s Left Party, whose spokeswoman Ulla Andersson said, “I believe that this is not exactly a poor family. They already have tax money at their disposal each year, and I think they should manage with what they have received over the years.” She also went on to say that the current economic crisis should also be shared with the royal court.

Read more…

JessRulz Swedish Royals Carl XVI Gustaf, Finances, Princess Victoria, Public Opinion, Wedding