Romania puts claim by ex-king on hold

ROMANIA: Romania's plan to compensate its former king for property appropriated by the communists has been put on ice after his nephew lodged his own claim for the huge payout, reopening old wounds in a deeply divided royal house.

Before being ousted from government late last year, Romania's ex-communists offered King Michael (82) a €30 million settlement for Peles Castle, in the Carpathian mountains, which is now one of the EU aspirant's most popular tourist attractions.

But approval of the payment was withheld this week after King Michael's estranged nephew, the self-proclaimed Prince Paul, laid his own claim to the lavish country pile.

"We thought it fair to invite all the parties that claim the right to get their royal property back," said Peter Ecstein-Kovacs, head of the senate's legal commission.

King Michael is the son of King Carol II, a reputed philanderer, who ran away with young socialite Zizi Lambrino, before being hauled back to Bucharest by his father and married off to a Greek princess, Elena.

King Carol's and Ms Lambrino's son, Mircea, was the father of Paul, who is now fighting to have his royal rights approved by Romania's supreme court, a ruling that could make him eligible for compensation for royal property seized by the communists.

King Michael was forced to abdicate, stripped of his citizenship and sent into Swiss exile in 1947. He returned after the fall of communism and execution in 1989 of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who used Peles Castle as a retreat for hosting heads of state.

The pretensions of Prince Paul are not King Michael's only worries. The self-proclaimed Emperor of all the Gypsies, Iulian Radulescu, claims to be suing him for the deportation and death during the second World War of more than 11,000 gypsies and the loss of all their horses, wagons, jewellery and other belongings.

"King Michael has to answer in court for the deportation of Romanian gypsies to Trans-Dniestr," in modern-day Moldova, said Mr Radulescu.