to resolve this conflict by uniting through the marriage of Prince David Bagrationi-Mukhraneli with Nugzar's eldest daughter, Anna Bagration-Gruzinsky, in February 2009. Prince David and Princess Anna became the parents of a baby boy on September 27, 2011, Prince Giorgi Bagration Bagrationi who, in his person, potentially unites the Mukhraneli and Gruzinsky claims. If no other Bagrationi prince is born in either the Gruzinsky or Mukhraneli branch who is of senior descent by primogeniture, and he survives those now living, Prince Giorgi will become both the heir male of the House of Bagrationi and the heir general of George XIII of Kartli-Kakheti. Nonetheless, speculation about the candidacy for a restored throne of other Bagrationis has occurred. Some monarchists have floated the name of Don Lelio Nicolò Orsini, a son of Don Raimondo Orsini and Princess Khétévane Bagration de Moukhrani, but Princess Khétévane herself rejected the idea as impossible. As Georgia was moving towards independence from the Soviet Union early in the 1990s, monarchical restoration was an issue on the fringes of politics, but without actual candidates to a throne and popular support for monarchy. Various Georgian political groups tried to negotiate a return of Jorge de Bagration, Head of the Royal House of Georgia, and even sent a delegation to Madrid to persuade the reluctant prince. Some political activists, especially those associated with the National Democratic Party, speculated that a constitutional monarchy in Georgia would help abort any efforts by Moscow to keep Georgia inside the Soviet Union. After Georgia's declaration of independence on April 9, 1991, weak and fractious opposition groups again raised the issue of restoration hoping to neutralize Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first popularly elected President of Georgia, and his authoritarian tendencies. During the rule of Eduard Shevardnadze (1992–2003), no serious consideration was given to monarchist ideas although several minor political parties, including the Union of Georgian Traditionalists led by the former parliamentary chairman Akaki Asatiani, continued to advocate constitutional monarchy as a viable alternative for Georgia's government. Recent debate The debate on a constitutional monarchy was revitalized with the political crisis that emerged in Georgia late in 2007. The October 7, 2007 sermon of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, the popular head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, gave an impetus to a renewed political debate. The patriarch, who has always sympathized with the idea of constitutional monarchy, said, during his Sunday service at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity,