Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, Europe’s longest-reigning monarch and the most popular, announced on Sunday that she will abdicate on January 14 and pass the baton to her son, Crown Prince Frederik.
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Margrethe, 83, ruled for 52 years and became Europe’s only remaining queen after the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
She is praised for subtly modernizing the Danish royal family during her half-century reign.
She made the surprise announcement during a traditional New Year’s Eve speech broadcast on Danish television, citing her age and health problems.
“In two weeks I will have been Queen of Denmark for 52 years,” she said.
That amount of time will take its toll on everyone, she added. She said, “One cannot take on as much as one has done in the past…
“On January 14, 2024, 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father, I will step down as Queen of Denmark. I will hand over the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.”
The chain-smoking queen has repeatedly said she would never abdicate, but the back surgery she underwent in February has prompted her to “think about the future and whether now is the right time to hand over responsibilities to the next generation.” It was a trigger.”
The Queen, known for her artistic talent, is extremely popular in Denmark.
“She remained the queen who united the Danish people during times of great change: globalization, the emergence of a multicultural nation, the 1970s and 1980s, and the economic crisis and pandemic of 2008-2015.” Lars Hovebacke Sorensen told AFP.
“The basis of her popularity is that the Queen is completely apolitical,” he said.
queen of art
With sparkling blue eyes and a big smile, she is known not only for her relaxed and playful side, but also for her involvement in Denmark’s cultural scene.
A painter as well as a costume and set designer, she has worked many times with the Royal Danish Ballet and the Royal Danish Theatre.
She studied at Cambridge and the Sorbonne in Paris and is fluent in English, French, German and Swedish.
She and her French-born husband also translated plays such as Simone de Beauvoir’s All Men Must Die under a pseudonym.
However, it was primarily her paintings and drawings that attracted public attention.
She has illustrated several books, including the 2002 Danish edition of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and her paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Denmark and abroad.
Crown Prince Frederick, 55, on the other hand, epitomizes the country’s relaxed, liberal monarchy.
Passionate about the environment, he has worked in his mother’s shadow to champion Denmark and its efforts to find solutions to the climate crisis.
“When the time comes, I will lead the ship,” he said in a speech celebrating his mother’s half-century on the throne.
“As you followed your father, so I will follow you,” added Crown Prince Frederik, who leads the thousand-year-old organization.
He met his wife, Mary Donaldson, an Australian lawyer, in a Sydney bar during the 2000 Olympics.
They try to give their four children as normal an education as possible, sending them primarily to state schools.
Their eldest son, Prince Christian, who recently turned 18, became the first Danish royal to attend nursery school.
Historian Sebastian Olden-Jorgensen said Frederic and Mary were “modern, woke, lovers of pop music, contemporary art, and sports” and represented a careful transition between eras. Deaf added.
Frederick said he considers himself a complement to his mother, who is a polymath and an accomplished writer and artist.
“You paint, I exercise. You dig up the buried things of your past. I buried my head unnoticed while I was in the army. You are a master of words. I’m at a loss for words sometimes,” he joked during the Queen’s coronation ceremony.
(AFP)