Members of Greece’s former royal family have been granted Greek citizenship and formally recognised the country’s republican system, marking a historic move 50 years after the monarchy was abolished.
The late King Constantine II and his family were stripped of their citizenship in 1994 following a dispute with the government over royal property and claims that the king refused to renounce any royal rights for his descendants.
While Constantine II passed away last year at age 82, on Thursday, December 19, his relatives signed a declaration acknowledging Greece’s republican system and adopted the surname “De Grece”—French for “of Greece.”
Athanasios Balerpas, an Interior Ministry official, called the move “a historically pending matter.”
“Let’s look to the future now. I think it’s a good moment because it closes an account from the past and we can now look forward as a people,” he added.
The decision, published Friday, December 20, in the government gazette, allows the De Grece family to apply for Greek passports and identity cards. It applies to the five children of Constantine II and former Queen Anne-Marie—Alexia, Pavlos, Nikolaos, Theodora and Philippos—as well as five of the late king’s grandchildren.
The Greek monarchy was abolished by referendum in December 1974, when voters overwhelmingly chose a republican constitution following the collapse of a military dictatorship. The royal family lived in exile for decades before Constantine II returned to Greece in his seventies.
In 1994, during a legal dispute over the former royal estate, which is now state-owned, the family lost their citizenship. They had previously refused to adopt the surname “Glücksburg,” imposed by a 1994 law, as they felt it was too closely tied to their German heritage.
Source: Ekathimerini.
