Decisions granting Greek citizenship to the five adult children of former monarch Constantine, who passed away in 2023, was officially published in the Government Gazette on Friday.
Greek citizenship was also granted to the five children of Constantine’s first-born son, Pavlos, with all 10 taking the royal-sounding surname “de Grece”, French for “of Greece” – i.e. Pavlos de Grece.
Publication of the 10 decisions, signed by relevant Interior Minister Thodoris Livanios, come a day after applications were filed by an attorney representing members Constantine’s direct descendants, and under the surname they desire. The one-time royal family in Greece hails from the House of Glücksburg.
The development means that all 10 newly declared Greek citizens have the right to a Greek passport under their declared names and can stand for election and vote. Additionally, the male grandchildren of Constantine and ex-Queen Anna-Maria of Denmark are eligible to be called up for military conscription, assuming they don’t use exceptions foreseen for permanent Greek residents abroad.
Constantine reigned as a constitutional monarch until December 1967, fleeing after an aborted counter-coup by royalist military officers against a “colonels’ junta” that ruled the country since April of that same year.
The monarchy was abolished in a popular referendum in December 1975 after the restoration of democracy in Greece months earlier.
