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BELGIUM-ROYALS
Belgium’s Queen Paola suffers stroke in Venice: media
BRUSSELS, Sept 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Queen Paola, mother of King Philippe of
Belgium, suffered a stroke while on a visit to Venice, Belgian and Italian
media reported on Wednesday.
Paola, 81, will be repatriated to Belgium by plane on Wednesday, said
Belgian state broadcaster RTBF.
Contacted by AFP, the Royal Palace in Brussels declined to comment. “A
communication is in preparation,” the palace said.
Queen Paola has already faced health problems: in September 2015, she was
forced to respect a “total rest period” after heart trouble.
In 2017 she also broke her hip less than two months after fracturing a
vertebrae.
A native of Italy, Paola was queen of Belgium during the twenty years of
the reign of her husband, King Albert II, who ruled from 1993 until his
abdication in 2013.
Paola is best known to Belgians for importing a touch of “dolce vita” to
the Belgian monarchy in the 1960s, before becoming Queen after the sudden
death of King Baudouin, Albert II’s brother.
Born Princess Paola Ruffo di Calabria, she spent her entire youth in Rome,
where she met Prince Albert at the age of 21 at a reception held at the
Belgian Embassy on the sidelines of Pope John XXIII’s induction ceremonies.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1455 hrs