Prince Radu of Romania

File:Cifrul ASR Principelui Radu.JPG

Radu, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen was born on 7 June 1960 in Iaşi, Romania, as Radu Duda. In 1996 he married Princess Margarita of Romania. On January 1, 1999 he was named Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen by Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, the Head of the Sigmaringen branch of the Hohenzollern family, his legal name becoming Radu Hohenzollern Veringen Duda. Prince Radu does not have a coat of arms, as one was not specified by the princely decree which granted his name change, neither was he granted a "Highness" predicate by the same decree. Other royal families have recognized the "Serene Highness" predicate.

He is a member of the Romanian Royal Family. Either in the company of his wife Princess Margarita or alone, the Prince represents the Royal Family on various occasions.

Education and work

He graduated from the University of Drama and Film in Bucharest, 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 2003 he graduated from the John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security.

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. Prince Radu 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.

Initiatives

Europe of Regions

It is a project Prince Radu initiated 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 Tuscany 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 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 diaspora. 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.

Personality

In an interview for "Observator Plus," Prince Radu talks frankly about himself. He says that during Communism 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.

Controversies

Corruption accusations

BAE Systems, 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.

Securitate informer

Prince Radu has been, as are many other prominent public figures, the target of press attacks of having been an informer of the Romanian Communist intelligence agency Securitate during Ceauşescu's dictatorship.

In two articles published by the Adevarul daily Prince Radu was accused of being a Securitate agent infiltrated in the Royal House so as to compromise it, with the specification that in 1989 his name was found on a list of 1,000 people called "support persons" of the Securitate. The former head of the local Iasi branch of Securitate explained in an interview that "support persons" were not informers, had not signed any agreement with the Securitate, nor did they receive money, but were 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. Prince Radu categorically denied any such collaboration: "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." . In another interview for the same daily, Radu said that in 1986 he had been asked by the Securitate to collaborate as he was about to go on his second theater tour abroad to Israel, accompanying two renowned Romanian actors.

The title scandal

In August 2004, representatives of HSH Karl Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, accused Radu of using the Hohenzollern name without permission as well as of having demanded "considerable" sums of money from whomever may be interested in buying it. The Hereditary Prince also warned Radu that the Hohenzollern family would take "legal measures" in case these things were to happen again and demanded him not to use the title of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" any longer. The Hereditary Prince is the son of HSH Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who had granted Radu an ad personam "name" of "Prinz von Hohenzollern-Veringen" on January 1, 1999. The scandal is believed to have been instigated by an illegitimate descendant of King Carol II and friend of the Hereditary Prince, Paul Lambrino, also known in the E.U. as Paul Hohenzollern subsequent to two lawsuits in Portugal and France which recognized his father as son of Carol II, without any dynastic or title rights. Radu has sued the London based "Royalty Monthly" magazine for libelfor publishing these allegations in an article. Prince Radu has not ceased to use the name and title "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" and there is no evidence that further legal measures have been taken by the Hohenzollern family.

The military rank

Some have contested the legality of Radu's meteoric rise in the Romanian Army from a reserve under-officer to the rank of active colonel in much less time than that prescribed for ordinary advancements. The former Chief of Army Staff 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

Prince Radu has maintained his official position as Special Representative of the Romanian Government under two successive Administrations, that formed by the Socialist PSD coalition government and the Justice and Truth Alliance Government formed by the the centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL) and the centrist reformist Democratic Party (PD). The extra-parliamentary pro-monarchist PNTCD party reject any role for him or Princess Margarita in a restored monarchy. In 2003, however, the Cluj branch of PNTCD officially invited Princess Margarita to be its candidate to the Senate in the upcoming elections .

In a 2004 poll conducted by the PSD (SDP) party, 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. 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.

See also

• Line of succession to the Romanian throne
• Personal webpage
• Editorial of Cornel Nistorescu
• http://www.daily-news.ro/article_detail.php?idarticle=25081
• http://www.evz.ro/article.php?artid=256611
• An article about Radu Duda signed by a former US Ambassador, Voice of America 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.
• An article about Radu Duda's political popularity
• An article about Radu Duda's support amongst the Romanian monarchists
• Summary of opinion poll in English
• Radu Duda at imdb.com