Greece’s Top Court Ends Dispute Over Former Royal Family Name and Citizenship

Greece’s apical administrative tribunal has upheld the citizenship presumption of 10 members of the erstwhile royal family. Credit: Giorgos Vitsaras / AMNA

Greece’s highest administrative tribunal has brought a ineligible conflict implicit the presumption of 10 members of the country’s erstwhile royal household to a close, ruling that some their Greek citizenship and their usage of the De Grèce surname are lawful.

The Council of State, the country’s apical administrative court, reached the determination aft closed-door deliberations. The ruling is expected to beryllium published successful the coming weeks and, erstwhile released, volition efficaciously extremity the quality implicit the family’s citizenship presumption and registered surname.

The 10 De Grèce household members covered by Greece’s tribunal ruling connected citizenship

The determination covers the 5 children of erstwhile king Constantine II and Anne-Marie: Pavlos De Grèce, Nikolaos De Grèce, Philippos De Grèce, Theodora De Grèce and Alexia De Grèce.

It besides applies to the 5 children of Pavlos, the precocious king’s eldest son: Achileas-Andreas De Grèce, Odysseas-Kimon De Grèce, Constantine-Alexios De Grèce, Aristidis-Stavros De Grèce and Maria-Olympia De Grèce.

The ruling confirms that the household members bask the aforesaid rights arsenic each different Greek citizens nether the Hellenic Republic, including the close to ballot and the close to basal for nationalist office. Those rights are grounded successful Article 51 of the Greek Constitution, which enshrines halfway governmental rights and the rule of fashionable sovereignty.

How the citizenship process began

The process began successful 2024 with a declaratory enactment signed by Interior Minister Theodoros Livanios nether Law 2215/1994.

That instrumentality acceptable circumstantial conditions for members of the erstwhile royal family. They had to authorities explicitly that they accepted the law bid established aft the 1974 referendum that abolished the monarchy successful Greece, and affirm their respect for the Constitution and parliamentary democracy.

They besides had to waive immoderate claims linked to the erstwhile governmental strategy and immoderate presumption derived from it, including titles of nobility, and implicit their registration successful the citizens’ registry.

According to the lawsuit record, the household members met those requirements and declared that they had nary claims against Greece.

The situation filed by Panagiotis Lazaratos

Panagiotis Lazaratos, a prof astatine the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, brought the ineligible situation earlier the Council of State. He asked the tribunal to annul the interior minister’s decisions granting Greek citizenship to members of the erstwhile royal family.

He besides challenged their registration successful the municipal records of the City of Athens. Lazaratos argued that Article 4 paragraph 7 of the Greek Constitution aims to forestall the usage of a surname that could revive the prestige and people symbolism of the past, perchance putting societal equality, societal cohesion and the antiauthoritarian bid astatine risk.

Greece’s tribunal rejects objections to the De Grèce surname and citizenship

A seven-member sheet of the Council of State’s Fourth Section heard the case, chaired by Vice President Spyridoula Chrysikopoulou, with Associate Judge Haido Evangeliou serving arsenic rapporteur.

The tribunal rejected the annulment petition and recovered that members of the erstwhile royal household whitethorn lawfully usage the surname De Grèce. It ruled that the sanction does not struggle with law provisions oregon existing legislation, and that the ministerial determination nether situation was lawful.

With that finding, the tribunal removed the past large ineligible obstacle surrounding some the citizenship presumption of the 10 household members and their close to usage the De Grèce surname.