Iasi 100

The Parliament in Bucharest met in a special festive session to celebrate the centennial “Iasi, the capital of the Kingdom of Romania 1916-1918 and the City of the Great Union and to mark the historic and political role played by Parliament 100 years ago

România Internațional, 27.04.2017, 14:02

Romanian senators and deputies met in a festive session on the 26th of April to celebrate the role of the north-eastern city of Iasi in the Great Union of 1918 and the historic and political role played by Parliament 100 years ago. Between 1916 and 1918, during World War One, Iasi hosted the Council of Ministers, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and decisions were taken in Iasi that laid the foundations for the consolidation and development of the Romanian unitary nation-state. Parliament took refuge in Iasi together with the royal family when Bucharest came under the occupation of the forces of the Central Powers. Two decisions were taken at the time that later translated into major reforms: the agrarian law and the universal vote law.

On Wednesday, Parliament’s festive meeting was attended, apart from senators and deputies, by Princess Margareta, the Custodian of the Romanian Crown and the daughter of King Mihai and great-granddaughter of King Ferdinand, as well as representatives of the Orthodox Church, the Romanian Academy and the government, parliamentarians from the neighbouring Republic of Moldova and foreign diplomats accredited to Bucharest.

In her address, Princess Margareta spoke about her great-grandfather King Ferdinand, who led the country in the most difficult times in its history and who earned the epithet “the Unifier” for fighting alongside his brave soldiers and the nation for the Great Union of all Romanians. Princess Margareta also spoke about the crossroads faced by Romania 100 years ago and emphasised that building the future is a patriotic and civic duty.

Princess Margareta: “Besides honouring the past, the event we are celebrating today shows that in these uncertain times full of dangers Romania is an intelligent and stable country that cherishes continuity, that builds its future on the foundations of the past and that can become an example of balance and measure on the continent.”

Princess Margareta ended her address saying that if today’s Parliament rises to the moral heights of its ancestors, the country will be able to write its own future. The speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea, called for unity in achieving Romania’s major goals. He proposed a consultation between all decision-makers to establish the milestones the country needs to achieve amid the challenges faced by the European Union and beyond. The opposition Liberal senator Iulia Scantei spoke about the unity of the Romanians and Parliament’s obligation to continue the projects begun 100 years ago. She called on the ruling party and the government to build the “motorway of the Union” that would connect Moldavia, in the east, to the other historical provinces, as well as Romania to Europe. (Translated by Cristina Mateescu)