Good news from Greece

There was a time, not so long ago, when news from Greece were joyful:


Arrival of HRHPrincess Anne-Marie of Denmark in her new homecountry.



Their Majesties' wedding on 18th September 1964 was the first televised royal wedding in Greece. This wedding was watched by millions of people around the world and was international headline news. All of Athens seemed to celebrate the wedding. Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou attended the wedding in good spirits. King Constantine II publicly heralded the prime minister as a replacement father figure in the wake of his father’s death. King Pavlos I had died on 6th March 1964.

The US magazine Time knew this about the Royal Wedding:

"Weddings are, so to speak, expensive propositions. In Athens, Finance Minister Constantine Mitsotakis announced that the marriage of Greece's King Constantine, 24, to Denmark's Princess Anne-Marie, 18, cost the treasury $303,000, including $183,300 spent on wedding gifts.

However, an issue of 2,000,000 commemorative 30-drachma pieces will net a profit of $1,063,000, leaving the wily Greeks with $760,000 to play around with, or possibly use as a dowry for Crown Princess Irene."

A very apt comment by a French Royalist
Ces vues nous rappellent que la dynastie et le peuple grec faisaient qu'un à l'époque et que la Grèce pouvait montrer au monde sa puissance et sa prospérité. Quel dommage que le jeune couple royal n'est pas pu gouverner plus longtemps leur royaume. Peut-être aujourd'hui il n'y aurait pas la crise et le chaos qui se passe actuellement en Grèce. Si les Grecs voient ces photos, ils doivent se rappeler du bon vieux temps. Espérons que dans quelques années, le roi Constantin ou un de ses descendants pourra remonter sur le trône grec.

And of course this is still true: The Hellenic Republic is losing its sovereignty