Radu, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen
Encyclopedia
Prince Radu of Romania was born on 7 June 1960 in Iaşi
, Romania, as Radu Duda. In 1996 he married Princess Margarita of Romania
. On 1 January 1999 he was given the name, not title of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" by Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, the Head of the Sigmaringen
branch of the Hohenzollern family. Afterward he called himself Radu Hohenzollern Veringen Duda. Since 2007, when he had his legal name changed into "Radu al României Duda", Radu no longer uses the name of Hohenzollern.
The new Statute of the Romanian Royal Family, signed by former King Michael I of Romania
on 30 December 2007, made public Radu's title of "Prince of Romania" with the style of "Royal Highness," which King Michael had bestowed upon him earlier on 5 January 2005.
The last Royal Romanian constitution does not endorse the succession of daughters, nor does it make provisions for titles for their husbands. Since there is no authority in Romania anymore, that can legally bestow titles of royalty or nobility, Radu's title of "Prince of Romania" with the style of "Royal Highness" has no foundation in extant law. Since he was not born as a descendant of a former Royal Family, his claim to the title also has no relation to the habit of descendants of former reigning families of holding titles in pretence. Radu's legal name is "Radu al României Duda". However, supporters of Radu's title claim that since Michael I of Romania remains king by divine right, Michael can confer honors and titles.
Either in the company of his wife Princess Margarita or most often alone, Prince Radu represents the Royal Family on various occasions.
, 1984 and had over 20 years of artistic activity in Romania as well as in Europe, America
, Asia and Africa. He was the Artistic Director of the first project in Romania of art therapy for abandoned children in orphanages. The project, started in 1993, was developed in eight cities over six years.
Prince Radu played a major role in the planning and organisation of the official tours undertaken by King Michael I of Romania
in 1997 and 2002 for the integration of Romania in NATO, as well as creating the concept of the King's "Millennium Tour" in Romania in 2000. In the NATO tours the King visited the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, meeting with heads of state and government. He accompanied the King on most of these visits.
In 2002, he graduated from the National College of Defence of Romania, and the George C. Marshall College, Garmisch, Germany. In August 2004 he participated in the two-week Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security at John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
.
In September 2002, he was appointed Special Representative of the Romanian Government for Integration, Co-operation and Sustainable Development. He is also Advisor to HM King Michael I, Patron of the British-Romanian Chamber of Commerce, Member of the Board of Directors of "House of NATO" Association in Bucharest, and Honorary Member of the Senate of "Aurel Vlaicu
" University of Arad
and of the University of Oradea
, Romania.
Since 2005, he is a Romanian Army Colonel
and holds a doctorate in Military Science from the National Defence University of Bucharest
.
Prince Radu is the author of several books:Dincolo de mască (Bucharest: Unitext, 1997), L'Âme du masque (Brussels, 1998), Război, un exil, o viaţă (Bucharest, 2000; translated into English as Anne of Romania
: A War, an Exile, a Life, Bucharest: Romanian Cultural Foundation, 2002), Michael of Romania: A Tribute (San Francisco and Bucharest, 2001), Kildine (Bucharest, 2003; a translation into Romanian of the fairy-tales book of Queen Marie of Romania), Seven (Bucharest: Nemira, 2003), The Royal Family of Romania (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2004), Persona (Bucharest: Nemira, 2006), The Elisabeta Palace (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2006)
Prince Radu lectures and makes speeches in Romania, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Japan, India, Lithuania, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Ireland, Canada, Poland, the United States, Italy, Jordan, Thailand, Slovenia, Croatia, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt and the United Kingdom. Mr. al României Duda appears regularly on TV and publishes articles in the written press in Romania.
Prince Radu's lectures address topics related to Romania's integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures, defense, and security, geopolitics and diplomacy, culture, economics, and education. He has equally spoken out about the issue of ethnic minorities, in particular about the Roma (Gypsy or Tzigane) minority, an important issue for Romania and South Eastern Europe today, through conferences in Romania and around Europe, in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Finland, etc. His activity report "2005 Annual Report and 2002–2004 Retrospective" is available in English and Romanian on his official website.
and Sicily
(provinces of Palermo
, Caltanisetta, Enna
, and Catania
), the French regions of Provence
-Alpes
-Côte d’Azur
and Aquitaine
(Pays Beaumontois). The Europe of Regions initiative will continue with visits to the Lands of Germany, to Spain, and further regions of France and Italy.
. The aim is also to raise awareness about Romania’s potential and to strengthen bilateral relations. The Friendship Tour kicked off with a ten-day visit to the states of Illinois
, Indiana
, and Massachusetts
, during which Prince Radu met with governors, mayors, state congressmen, professors, students, businessmen, journalists, and American citizens of Romanian origin. The Friendship Tour II and The Friendship Tour III plan to reach five other USA states.
he had lived in an amoral world which lacked models and in which it was difficult to have principles. He discovered the latter only when he met King Michael, when he realized that "life can be marked, here and there, by principles." Before that fateful meeting, Radu had had only ideals and "exercises of admiration" towards European or international personalities. In another interview, Radu enumerates some of the personalities from Eastern Europe he admires, such as Pope John Paul II
, Lech Wałęsa
, Václav Havel
, and [sic] Nelson Mandela
. During Communism, his family represented a source of inspiration for him, because in those corrupt times, they remained honest people. Also, Radu believes that he could not have done things better than he has done in his life so far. He also says that he has very few friends. One of his favorite films is Brokeback Mountain
, which he describes as "one of the most moving and emotional, full of inspiration and of truth movies of the last years," and he is an admirer of the movie's "exceptional" star, Heath Ledger
, whose premature death he decries. His favorite singers are Pavarotti, José Carreras
, Placido Domingo
, and Elton John
.
, one of the donors to Princess Margarita's 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 this money, it is also alleged, "ended up in the pockets of the royal family of Hohenzollern
". The "Gardianul" newspaper, noting that both Margarita and Radu, as Special Representative of the Government, had met a number of times formally or informally 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, 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.
's dreaded secret police Securitate
during Nicolae Ceauşescu
's dictatorship.
Căminul românesc magazine from Geneva
published an article by Nicolette (Nicoleta) Franck, a journalist close to King Michael, about whom she wrote many books. The article alleged that Radu Duda was a Securitate agent infiltrated in the Royal House so as to compromise it, on orders from Ion Iliescu
, the former high ranking Communist president of Romania and allegedly friend of Radu's father, also a former high ranking Communist. No proof of these allegations was offered.
In an article published by Adevărul
daily, Prince Radu denied allegations of his supposed involvement with the Securitate: "I have not collaborated with the Securitate…in 1986 there was an attempt to recruit me. I refused politely and I was never contacted again." The article revealed that in 1989 Radu’s name was found on a list of 1,000+ people entitled "support persons" of the Securitate. In another interview for the same daily, Radu explained that in 1986 he had been asked by the Securitate to collaborate due to his successful career as an actor: "Everybody who was somebody knew that there was this risk" to be called upon by Securitate to become an informer. At that time Radu had been working on a Iaşi stage as a theater graduate for two years and was about to go on his second and last theater tour abroad to Israel, accompanying two renowned Romanian actors. The former head of the local Iaşi branch of Securitate explained in an interview that a "support person" such as Duda and the other people on the 1,000+ list were not informers, did not sign any agreement with the Securitate, nor did they receive money, but were Communist Party members, in particular people who traveled abroad, targeted by the Securitate with the Party's approval to carry out well-defined missions for a limited period of time. He also confirmed in a subsequent interview that the list in question is real.
It has also been reported that "many of the royal family's supporters have stopped offering financial aids after Radu Duda joined the Royal House. Wealthy Romanians in exile, who have been surveyed by the communist era political police Securitate even in subway stations, considered the compromise as intolerable."
, acknowledged that all the accusations were untrue, that Prince Radu was never a member or collaborator of the Securitate, and that this should never have been published. The statement also confirmed that the Collegium of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives has found Prince Radu did not support in any way the Securitate.
, accused Radu of using the Hohenzollern name without permission as well as of having demanded "considerable" sums of money from whoever may be interested in buying it. Karl Friedrich also warned Radu that the Hohenzollern family would take "legal measures" in case these things were to happen again and demanded that he cease to use the title of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen". In a 2009 interview, Karl Friedrich re-iterated these demands and stated that his father has no right to issue titles in a republic, calling Radu's title "of Hohenzollern-Veringen" a "farce."
has argued that his activation was done at Radu's own request, while his promotion was granted for "extraordinary" merits, such as Radu's lobby for Romania's admission into NATO. Radu's official response argues, however, that his own activation was not as result of any unilateral request, but of a joint request of both the Royal House and the Defence Ministry.
(PNŢCD), which holds no seats in the parliament, has been rejecting any role for him or Princess Margarita in a restored monarchy. In 2003, however, the Cluj
branch of PNŢCD officially invited Princess Margarita to be its candidate to the Senate in the upcoming elections. The current president of Romania
Traian Băsescu
does not appreciate Prince Radu and thinks he is detrimental to the Romanians' public perception of the idea of monarchy. The Romanian historian and avowed monarchist Neagu Djuvara
also considers Radu as detrimental, as an "undertaker" to the cause of the Romanian monarchy. On 17 September 2008 Radu resigned his governmental position.
In a 2004 poll conducted by the PSD, of whose coalition government he was at that time the Special Representative, Prince Radu scored just 3.4% as a potential candidate in the upcoming Romanian presidential elections. In a more recent 2006 opinion poll taken by an institute affiliated with the Royal House in running many of its public events and its hospitality management school, 48.80% of those questioned answered that it would be good for Prince Radu to accept a state function, while 46.41% were of the opposite opinion. The same 2006 poll showed that 66% of the Romanians interviewed would like to see a more active involvement of the Royal House in the democratisation and development of Romania. In a 2008 poll, Radu was preferred as president of Romania by 2.6% of the Romanian electorate. In the presence of Princess Margareta, Prince Radu announced his candidacy for the Romanian Presidency in a press conference at Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, Romania, on 9 April 2009. Five months later, on 2 September 2009, he retracted his candidacy.
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, Romania, as Radu Duda. In 1996 he married Princess Margarita of Romania
Princess Margarita of Romania
Princess Margarita of Romania , also styled as Crown Princess of Romania, Custodian of the Romanian Crown, former Princess of Hohenzollern, is the eldest daughter of Michael I , King of Romania , former Prince of Hohenzollern, and of his wife, Anne of Bourbon-Parma...
. On 1 January 1999 he was given the name, not title of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" by Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, the Head of the Sigmaringen
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
-Noble jurisdictions:Prince Karl Eitel of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and descendants of his nephew Ferdinand ruled over the Kingdom of Romania, as Karl Eitel did not have children...
branch of the Hohenzollern family. Afterward he called himself Radu Hohenzollern Veringen Duda. Since 2007, when he had his legal name changed into "Radu al României Duda", Radu no longer uses the name of Hohenzollern.
The new Statute of the Romanian Royal Family, signed by former King Michael I of Romania
Michael I of Romania
Michael was the last King of Romania. He reigned from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930, and again from 6 September 1940 until 30 December 1947 when he was forced, by the Communist Party of Romania , to abdicate to the Soviet armies of occupation...
on 30 December 2007, made public Radu's title of "Prince of Romania" with the style of "Royal Highness," which King Michael had bestowed upon him earlier on 5 January 2005.
The last Royal Romanian constitution does not endorse the succession of daughters, nor does it make provisions for titles for their husbands. Since there is no authority in Romania anymore, that can legally bestow titles of royalty or nobility, Radu's title of "Prince of Romania" with the style of "Royal Highness" has no foundation in extant law. Since he was not born as a descendant of a former Royal Family, his claim to the title also has no relation to the habit of descendants of former reigning families of holding titles in pretence. Radu's legal name is "Radu al României Duda". However, supporters of Radu's title claim that since Michael I of Romania remains king by divine right, Michael can confer honors and titles.
Either in the company of his wife Princess Margarita or most often alone, Prince Radu represents the Royal Family on various occasions.
Education and work
He graduated from the University of Drama and Film in BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, 1984 and had over 20 years of artistic activity in Romania as well as in Europe, America
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, Asia and Africa. He was the Artistic Director of the first project in Romania of art therapy for abandoned children in orphanages. The project, started in 1993, was developed in eight cities over six years.
Prince Radu played a major role in the planning and organisation of the official tours undertaken by King Michael I of Romania
Michael I of Romania
Michael was the last King of Romania. He reigned from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930, and again from 6 September 1940 until 30 December 1947 when he was forced, by the Communist Party of Romania , to abdicate to the Soviet armies of occupation...
in 1997 and 2002 for the integration of Romania in NATO, as well as creating the concept of the King's "Millennium Tour" in Romania in 2000. In the NATO tours the King visited the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, meeting with heads of state and government. He accompanied the King on most of these visits.
In 2002, he graduated from the National College of Defence of Romania, and the George C. Marshall College, Garmisch, Germany. In August 2004 he participated in the two-week Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security at John F. Kennedy School of Government
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...
Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
In September 2002, he was appointed Special Representative of the Romanian Government for Integration, Co-operation and Sustainable Development. He is also Advisor to HM King Michael I, Patron of the British-Romanian Chamber of Commerce, Member of the Board of Directors of "House of NATO" Association in Bucharest, and Honorary Member of the Senate of "Aurel Vlaicu
Aurel Vlaicu
Aurel Vlaicu was a Romanian engineer, inventor, airplane constructor and early pilot.-Biography:Aurel Vlaicu was born in Binţinţi , Geoagiu, Transylvania. He attended Calvinist High School in Orăştie and took his Baccalaureate in Sibiu in 1902...
" University of Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
and of the University of Oradea
Oradea
Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...
, Romania.
Since 2005, he is a Romanian Army Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
and holds a doctorate in Military Science from the National Defence University of Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
.
Prince Radu is the author of several books:Dincolo de mască (Bucharest: Unitext, 1997), L'Âme du masque (Brussels, 1998), Război, un exil, o viaţă (Bucharest, 2000; translated into English as Anne of Romania
Queen Anne of Romania
Queen Anne of Romania , is the wife of the former King Michael I of Romania.She is a niece of Empress Zita of Austria and a great niece of Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia.-Early life:...
: A War, an Exile, a Life, Bucharest: Romanian Cultural Foundation, 2002), Michael of Romania: A Tribute (San Francisco and Bucharest, 2001), Kildine (Bucharest, 2003; a translation into Romanian of the fairy-tales book of Queen Marie of Romania), Seven (Bucharest: Nemira, 2003), The Royal Family of Romania (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2004), Persona (Bucharest: Nemira, 2006), The Elisabeta Palace (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2006)
Prince Radu lectures and makes speeches in Romania, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Japan, India, Lithuania, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Ireland, Canada, Poland, the United States, Italy, Jordan, Thailand, Slovenia, Croatia, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt and the United Kingdom. Mr. al României Duda appears regularly on TV and publishes articles in the written press in Romania.
Prince Radu's lectures address topics related to Romania's integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures, defense, and security, geopolitics and diplomacy, culture, economics, and education. He has equally spoken out about the issue of ethnic minorities, in particular about the Roma (Gypsy or Tzigane) minority, an important issue for Romania and South Eastern Europe today, through conferences in Romania and around Europe, in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Finland, etc. His activity report "2005 Annual Report and 2002–2004 Retrospective" is available in English and Romanian on his official website.
Europe of Regions
Prince Radu initiated a project to promote Romania's major interests and to strengthen Romania’s bilateral relations. Its aims are to encourage and promote economic, cultural, and educational partnerships between Romanian regions and different European regions, as well as to to raise awareness about Romania through meetings, conferences, and lectures. It will involve Prince Radu visiting up to four different regions a year, meeting local businessmen, political and local administration leaders, university teachers and students, Romanian communities and the press. Regions covered so far are the Italian regions of TuscanyTuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
and Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
(provinces of Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Caltanisetta, Enna
Enna
Enna is a city and comune located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering above the surrounding countryside...
, and Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
), the French regions of Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
-Alpes
Alpes
Alpes may refer to:*Alpes-de-Haute-Provence , a French department in the south of France*Hautes-Alpes, a department in southeastern France*Alpes-Maritimes, a department in the extreme southeast corner of France...
-Côte d’Azur
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
and Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
(Pays Beaumontois). The Europe of Regions initiative will continue with visits to the Lands of Germany, to Spain, and further regions of France and Italy.
The Friendship Tour
The Friendship Tour is a similar initiative created to promote Romania's major interests, mainly in the United States of America, aiming to encourage, promote, and support Romanian partnerships in the economic, educational, and cultural domains. Visits are planned to 3–4 states each year to meet local businessmen and women, politicians, and local administration, university teachers and students, as well as the Romanian diasporaDiaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
. The aim is also to raise awareness about Romania’s potential and to strengthen bilateral relations. The Friendship Tour kicked off with a ten-day visit to the states of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, and Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, during which Prince Radu met with governors, mayors, state congressmen, professors, students, businessmen, journalists, and American citizens of Romanian origin. The Friendship Tour II and The Friendship Tour III plan to reach five other USA states.
Personality
In an interview for "Observator Plus," Prince Radu talks frankly about himself. He says that during CommunismCommunist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
he had lived in an amoral world which lacked models and in which it was difficult to have principles. He discovered the latter only when he met King Michael, when he realized that "life can be marked, here and there, by principles." Before that fateful meeting, Radu had had only ideals and "exercises of admiration" towards European or international personalities. In another interview, Radu enumerates some of the personalities from Eastern Europe he admires, such as Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
, Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, and [sic] Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
. During Communism, his family represented a source of inspiration for him, because in those corrupt times, they remained honest people. Also, Radu believes that he could not have done things better than he has done in his life so far. He also says that he has very few friends. One of his favorite films is Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
, which he describes as "one of the most moving and emotional, full of inspiration and of truth movies of the last years," and he is an admirer of the movie's "exceptional" star, Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
, whose premature death he decries. His favorite singers are Pavarotti, José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
, Placido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
, and Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
.
Corruption accusations
BAE SystemsBAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
, one of the donors to Princess Margarita's charity, and its representatives, have been involved in a corruption scandal regarding the purchase by the Romanian Government of two decommissioned UK Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
frigates refurbished by BAE, for which an alleged £7 million bribe was paid. Some of this money, it is also alleged, "ended up in the pockets of the royal family of Hohenzollern
Romanian Royal Family
The current Romanian royal family , an integral part of the larger royal house of Romania, consists of the family of King Michael I of Romania who bear a royal title...
". The "Gardianul" newspaper, noting that both Margarita and Radu, as Special Representative of the Government, had met a number of times formally or informally 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, 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.
Securitate informer
Prince Radu has been, as are many other prominent public figures, the target of press attacks of having been an informer of Communist RomaniaCommunist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
's dreaded secret police Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
during Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
's dictatorship.
Căminul românesc magazine from Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
published an article by Nicolette (Nicoleta) Franck, a journalist close to King Michael, about whom she wrote many books. The article alleged that Radu Duda was a Securitate agent infiltrated in the Royal House so as to compromise it, on orders from Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains....
, the former high ranking Communist president of Romania and allegedly friend of Radu's father, also a former high ranking Communist. No proof of these allegations was offered.
In an article published by Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
daily, Prince Radu denied allegations of his supposed involvement with the Securitate: "I have not collaborated with the Securitate…in 1986 there was an attempt to recruit me. I refused politely and I was never contacted again." The article revealed that in 1989 Radu’s name was found on a list of 1,000+ people entitled "support persons" of the Securitate. In another interview for the same daily, Radu explained that in 1986 he had been asked by the Securitate to collaborate due to his successful career as an actor: "Everybody who was somebody knew that there was this risk" to be called upon by Securitate to become an informer. At that time Radu had been working on a Iaşi stage as a theater graduate for two years and was about to go on his second and last theater tour abroad to Israel, accompanying two renowned Romanian actors. The former head of the local Iaşi branch of Securitate explained in an interview that a "support person" such as Duda and the other people on the 1,000+ list were not informers, did not sign any agreement with the Securitate, nor did they receive money, but were Communist Party members, in particular people who traveled abroad, targeted by the Securitate with the Party's approval to carry out well-defined missions for a limited period of time. He also confirmed in a subsequent interview that the list in question is real.
It has also been reported that "many of the royal family's supporters have stopped offering financial aids after Radu Duda joined the Royal House. Wealthy Romanians in exile, who have been surveyed by the communist era political police Securitate even in subway stations, considered the compromise as intolerable."
Royalty Magazine article legal case
In 2005 Prince Radu sued Marco Houston and Sena Julia Publicatus the publishers of Royalty Magazine. The case arose due to an article that was published in the magazine in 2004. On 15 July 2010, Prince Radu obtained a Statement in Open Court from Marco Houston, editor of Royalty MagazineRoyalty Magazine
Royalty Magazine or Royalty Monthly as it was originally called was founded in 1981 by journalist Bob Houston Houston had previously been the launch editor of Majesty Magazine, a similar publication...
, acknowledged that all the accusations were untrue, that Prince Radu was never a member or collaborator of the Securitate, and that this should never have been published. The statement also confirmed that the Collegium of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives has found Prince Radu did not support in any way the Securitate.
Princely title
On 1 January 1999, Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, granted Radu an ad personam "name" of "Prinz von Hohenzollern-Veringen". In August 2004, representatives of Friedrich Wilhelm's eldest son Karl Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of HohenzollernKarl Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern
Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern is the eldest son of the late Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern and Princess Margarita of Leiningen...
, accused Radu of using the Hohenzollern name without permission as well as of having demanded "considerable" sums of money from whoever may be interested in buying it. Karl Friedrich also warned Radu that the Hohenzollern family would take "legal measures" in case these things were to happen again and demanded that he cease to use the title of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen". In a 2009 interview, Karl Friedrich re-iterated these demands and stated that his father has no right to issue titles in a republic, calling Radu's title "of Hohenzollern-Veringen" a "farce."
Military rank
Some sources have contested the legality of Radu's rapid rise in the Romanian Army from a reserve lieutenant (locotenent-major in Romanian) to the rank of active colonel in much less time than that prescribed for ordinary advancements. The former Chief of Army StaffChief of Army Staff
The Chief of Army Staff or Chief of Staff of the Army is the most senior officer in the command structure of many armies. The title comes from the fact that the officer is the chief army aide to the Commander-in-Chief, who is usually the head of state...
has argued that his activation was done at Radu's own request, while his promotion was granted for "extraordinary" merits, such as Radu's lobby for Romania's admission into NATO. Radu's official response argues, however, that his own activation was not as result of any unilateral request, but of a joint request of both the Royal House and the Defence Ministry.
Political support
Between September 2002 and September 2008, Prince Radu maintained an official position as Special Representative of the Romanian Government under two successive administrations, that of the centre-left Partidul Social Democrat (PSD) coalition government as well as that of the centre-right Justice and Truth Alliance coalition government. Meanwhile the main pro-monarchist party Christian-Democratic National Peasants' PartyChristian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (Romania)
The Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party is a Romanian Christian-Democratic party...
(PNŢCD), which holds no seats in the parliament, has been rejecting any role for him or Princess Margarita in a restored monarchy. In 2003, however, the Cluj
Cluj County
Cluj ; is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Cluj-Napoca.-Demographics:In 2007, it had a population of 692,316 and a population density of 104/km².*Romanians – 80%*Hungarians – 17.5%*Roma – 2.5%-Geography:...
branch of PNŢCD officially invited Princess Margarita to be its candidate to the Senate in the upcoming elections. The current president of Romania
President of Romania
The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...
Traian Băsescu
Traian Basescu
Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...
does not appreciate Prince Radu and thinks he is detrimental to the Romanians' public perception of the idea of monarchy. The Romanian historian and avowed monarchist Neagu Djuvara
Neagu Djuvara
Neagu Djuvara is a Romanian historian, essayist, philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat.-Early life:A native of Bucharest, he descended from an aristocratic Aromanian family...
also considers Radu as detrimental, as an "undertaker" to the cause of the Romanian monarchy. On 17 September 2008 Radu resigned his governmental position.
In a 2004 poll conducted by the PSD, of whose coalition government he was at that time the Special Representative, Prince Radu scored just 3.4% as a potential candidate in the upcoming Romanian presidential elections. In a more recent 2006 opinion poll taken by an institute affiliated with the Royal House in running many of its public events and its hospitality management school, 48.80% of those questioned answered that it would be good for Prince Radu to accept a state function, while 46.41% were of the opposite opinion. The same 2006 poll showed that 66% of the Romanians interviewed would like to see a more active involvement of the Royal House in the democratisation and development of Romania. In a 2008 poll, Radu was preferred as president of Romania by 2.6% of the Romanian electorate. In the presence of Princess Margareta, Prince Radu announced his candidacy for the Romanian Presidency in a press conference at Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, Romania, on 9 April 2009. Five months later, on 2 September 2009, he retracted his candidacy.
Filmography
- Laissez-passer (20022002 in filmThe year 2002 in film involved some significant events. The first significant releases of sequels took place between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Men in Black II, Analyze That, Spy Kids 2: The Island of...
) .... Andrejew - Ciocârlia (20022002 in televisionThe year 2002 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2002.For the American TV schedule, see: 2002–03 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
) (TVTelevision movieA television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
) .... - Capitaine ConanCapitaine ConanCapitaine Conan is a 1996 French film that is directed by Bertrand Tavernier. The film is based on the 1934 Prix Goncourt-winning novel Captain Conan by Roger Vercel.-Plot:...
(19961996 in filmMajor releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...
) .... Insp. Stefanesco
See also
- Line of succession to the Romanian throneLine of succession to the Romanian throneThe succession order to the throne of Romania depends on the interpretation of the applicable laws, either the Romanian kingdom's last democratic constitution, that of 1923, or the new Statute of the Royal House of Romania, named Fundamental Rules of the Romanian Royal House, privately enacted by...
- Personal webpage
- An article about Radu Duda signed by a former US Ambassador, Voice of AmericaVoice of AmericaVoice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
director, and member of the U.S. delegation to the annual US-USSR Information Talks in Moscow and Washington, D.C., well-informed about ex-communist countries, Richard Carlson. - An article about Radu Duda's title and political activity.