King Michael I of Romania by Emanuel Stoica

The idea of the restoration of the monarchy in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

is a popular idea that has been supported by a fraction of the population of the country ever since the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred ...

. If in 1997, only 7% of Romanians supported this idea, this number increased to 10% in 2002, to 14% in 2007, to 16% in 2008, to 27.2% in 2013 and to 30.2% in 2014. A 2016 poll showed a decrease of support to 21%, followed by a 2018 poll with 37% in favor of the organization of a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...

for the restoration; the latter was shortly after the funeral of

Michael I of Romania Michael I ( ro, Mihai I ; 25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last King of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947. Shortly after Michael's ...

, the last

King of Romania The King of Romania (Romanian language, Romanian: ''Regele României'') or King of the Romanians (Romanian: ''Regele Românilor''), was the title of the monarch of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when the Romanian Workers' Party proc ...

. Support for a new kingdom in Romania has also been expressed by several public figures. , the executive president of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(PSD) at the time, declared in late 2017 that despite identifying himself as a republican, he was not opposed to a referendum on the monarchy being held in Romania, saying that the issue should be discussed as "I saw that there already are many sympathizers in media". In response to this, the

Prime Minister of Romania The prime minister of Romania ( ro, Prim-ministrul României), officially the prime minister of the Government of Romania ( ro, Prim-ministrul Guvernului României, link=no), is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was s ...

Mihai Tudose said that he could not support this initiative as he was not a monarchist. On the other hand,

Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu (; born 14 January 1952) is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 29 December 2004 to 22 December 2008. He was also president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the vice-pre ...

, the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) at the time, talked about the possible benefits of having a monarch in Romania. Furthermore, Cristian Diaconescu, former

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( ro, Ministerul Afacerilor Externe) is the ministry responsible for external affairs of the Romanian Government. The current Foreign Minister is Bogdan Aurescu. List of Ministers of Foreign Affairs ...

, in the face of the

2021 Romanian political crisis A political crisis began on 1 September 2021 in Romania, engulfing both major coalition partners of the Cîțu Cabinet, namely the conservative-liberal National Liberal Party (PNL) and the progressive-liberal Save Romania Union (USR). The cri ...

, declared "a constitutional monarchy would have managed the crisis better, because only it can guarantee the balance of power".

References

{{Europe topic, prefix=Monarchism in Politics of Romania Restoration of the monarchy

See also

References