BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Thousands of Romanians on Thursday paid their
respects to King Michael I,
whose body is lying in state at the Royal
Palace before his funeral this weekend. Michael, who ruled Romania twice
and was forced to abdicate by the communists in 1947, died Dec. 5 in
Switzerland at age 96.
Mourners arrived late Wednesday and stayed
until early Thursday to pay their respects to the king. His coffin stood
on a rostrum in a grand room not far from where he ordered the arrest
of pro-Nazi leader Marshal Ion Antonescu on Aug. 23, 1944, which took
Romania into the war on the side of the Allies.
Outside the palace, there were thousands of candles
and flowers, as mourners, many in tears, said farewell to Romania's
last king. Retired medical secretary Gabriela Dumitrache called Michael
"a model of morality, dignity and kindness," calling his death "a great
loss, it was like losing a parent, my heart and body ached."
Michael, who spent decades in exile working as a
chicken farmer and aircraft pilot, finally got his citizenship back in
1997, eight years after the collapse of communism in Romania. He will be
given a state funeral on Saturday attended by members of other European
royal families. Among those who will attend are Prince Charles of
Britain, King Carl Gustav XVI and Queen Silvia of Sweden, Princess
Astrid of Belgium, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and former King Juan
Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, the royal house said.
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