Romania Expels Visiting King Michael : Eastern Europe: The nation’s former monarch was ejected 12 hours after a surprise arrival, apparently due to fears he would cause unrest.

King Michael, Romania’s former monarch, returned to his Swiss exile today after being expelled by the Bucharest government less than 12 hours after he had arrived on a surprise visit, his first in four decades.

The 69-year-old former king returned to Romania exactly a year after the execution of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in a popular revolution. The monarch had been forced into exile with the Communist takeover 43 years ago.

The Romanian government, already facing mounting strikes and protests by an opposition that accuses it of being a Communist regime in disguise, apparently feared that the visit by Michael might stir up unrest. It unceremoniously threw him out on the grounds that he had not secured permission to visit.

After Ceausescu was overthrown, the former king had announced himself ready to return from exile as head of a constitutional monarchy “if my people want me to come back.”

The National Salvation Front, which took power during last year’s revolution in Romania and won subsequent elections, extended no invitation for him to visit, and had refused to grant him a visa.

In June, the former king accused the front of leading the country toward Communist dictatorship again.

Before being put on a Romanian-chartered flight to Switzerland this morning, Michael termed his expulsion “a rather sorry state of affairs.”

Michael had arrived on Tuesday night at Bucharest’s Otopeni airport on his private plane from Switzerland.

He was accompanied by his wife, Ana de Bourbon-Parme; his daughter, Sophie, and several journalists and aides. They were met by another daughter, Margarita, who was in Romania on a visit.

Michael was to have attended a Mass there today and leave Romania tonight.

But soon after the group arrived, the Interior Ministry issued a statement saying the three family members had arrived without visas and “crossed the border fraudulently.”

Sophie insisted that Michael had received a visa.

“My father received a visa just like this one,” she said, displaying her passport with a separate stamped visa document. She said officials had taken her father’s Danish diplomatic passport. Michael also said he had a visa.