FRANCE: EX-KING MICHAEL RETURNS TO FRANCE AFTER ROMANIAN AUTHORITIES REFUSE ENTRY.

Record ID: 639821

  • Title: FRANCE: EX-KING MICHAEL RETURNS TO FRANCE AFTER ROMANIAN AUTHORITIES REFUSE ENTRY.
  • Date: 7th October 1994
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 7, 1994) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV FORMER ROMANIAN KING MICHAEL ARRIVING BACK, WALKING THROUGH GLASS DOORS, REPORTERS SURROUNDING HIM (2 SHOTS) 0.16 2. SCU KING READS FROM PREPARED STATEMENT SAYING THE ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT HAVE ALWAYS USED THE SAME TACTICS, AND THAT THEY HAVE EFFECTIVELY PREVENTED HIM FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY (FRENCH) 1.09 3. GV PRESS CUTAWAY 1.12 4. GV KING MICHAEL WALKING AWAY 1.16 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 1994 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City:
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA1AXOLGL9U7N2IU9B3H3YZGKYS
  • Story Text: Romania's post-communist leaders sent former King Michael back into exile on Friday (October 7) little more than an hour after he defied them and flew home to Bucharest.

    Michael left on the same Air France jet which brought him by economy class from Paris, flying out of Bucharest having seen only Otopeni airport, where riot police with bullet-proof vests were deployed.

    "I am not angry," the ex-King said when he arrived back at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. But he added: "It was historically and morally scandalous to stop me returning to the country where I was born." President Ion Iliescu and his government had made it clear they would not let the 72-year-old ex-monarch into the country without a visa, saying they considered him a foreign commoner.

    True to their word they sent him back, avoiding a repeat of huge pro-monarchy rallies in 1992 when he was allowed into the country for his first official visit since he was sent into exile in 1947. He tried to visit in 1990, only to be escorted out.

    In a surreal scene played out inside the Air France jet, border and security guards entered the aircraft and said "we are not issuing tourist visas today" and invited Michael to join them "for coffee" on another plane, passengers said.

    He was escorted to a Russian-built Tupolev airliner of the Romanian national carrier Tarom that had been ordered to fly him to Switzerland, where he lives in exile.

    Michaal refused to board the Tupolev, went back to the Air France jet and flew back to Paris.


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