Queen Margrethe II announces her abdication during a New Year’s speech at King Christian IX’s Palace in Amalienborg Castle in Copenhagen on Sunday, December 31st. Ritzau Scanpix via AP
Keld Nabuntoft
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Queen Margrethe II of Denmark announced Sunday that she plans to abdicate after 52 years and hand over the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik.
The Queen, Europe’s longest-reigning monarch, announced in her New Year’s speech that she would step down from office on January 14, the anniversary of her accession to the throne at the age of 31 following the death of her father, the King. . Frederick IX.
Margrethe, 83, said her back surgery in early 2023 had made her “think about the future” and when she would hand over the responsibilities of the throne to her son. “I have decided that now is the right time,” she said in a speech.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen paid tribute to her in a statement, saying: “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Her Majesty the Queen for her lifelong dedication and tireless work on behalf of the Kingdom.”
Frederiksen’s statement said Margrethe was “the epitome of Denmark” and “for many years her words and emotions have shaped who we are as a people and a nation.”
Margrethe, a 6-foot-tall chain-smoker, is one of the most popular public figures in Denmark, where the king’s role is largely ceremonial. She often walked the streets of Copenhagen virtually unescorted, and her warm demeanor and her talents as a linguist and designer attracted the admiration of the Danes.
An avid skier, she was part of the Danish Women’s Air Force as a princess, taking part in judo classes and snow endurance tests. Margrethe remained tough even as she grew older. In 2011, at age 70, she wore a military jumpsuit to visit Danish troops in southern Afghanistan.
As monarch, she criss-crossed the country, regularly visiting Greenland and the Faroe Islands, two semi-independent territories that are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and was met with cheering crowds everywhere.
Denmark has Europe’s oldest monarchy, with its lineage dating back to the Viking king Gorm the Elder, who died in 958. Although Magrethe is the head of state, the Danish constitution strictly prohibits her involvement in party politics.
However, the Queen was clearly well versed in the law and knew the contents of the bill she was asked to sign.
She was educated in French and English from an early age, as well as Swedish by her mother. In addition to her archaeology, she studied philosophy, politics and economics at the universities of Copenhagen, Aarhus and Cambridge, the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne in Paris.
Frederic Andre Henrik Christian has been the heir to the Danish throne since his birth on May 26, 1968.
He is the eldest son of Queen Margrethe and her French-born husband Prince Henrik, who died in February 2018. Frederick, 55, has a younger brother, Prince Joachim.
Since the age of 18, he has served as regent when his mother is abroad, shaking hands with thousands of people and welcoming foreign dignitaries.
The Queen’s announcement consisted of just a few sentences at the end of a wide-ranging New Year’s speech that reflected on the “upheaval and upheaval of the world” amid wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and the climate crisis.
But she also thanked the public for the “warmth and hospitality of the people I met everywhere in Denmark.”
While the Prime Minister lavished praise on the Queen, he also looked to the future.
“In the new year, Crown Prince Frederik will be proclaimed king. Crown Princess Mary will be crowned queen. Saudi Arabia will have a new regent and a new royal couple,” he said in a statement, adding, “If they We can look forward to all of this knowing that we are ready to take on the responsibility and the task.”