(Copenhagen) Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, holder of the record for longevity for a monarch in Europe, announced on Sunday that she would abdicate on January 14 and leave the throne to her son, Prince Frederik.
Margrethe II, aged 83, reigned for 52 years and was the only female monarch in Europe since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The surprise announcement was made during her traditional televised New Year’s speech, during which she cited her age and health problems.
“On January 14, 2024, 52 years after succeeding my beloved father, I will step down as Queen of Denmark. I will leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik,” announced the unifying and popular sovereign, widowed since 2018.
This inveterate smoker had assured several times that she would never abdicate, affirming: “I will remain on the throne until I fall from it”.
But the major surgery she underwent on her back in February, which had prevented her from appearing in public until April, “has […] gave rise to thoughts about the future, about whether it was time to transfer responsibilities to the next generation,” the Queen said.
On the throne since the death of her father in 1972, this polyglot intellectual contributed to gradually modernizing the monarchy.
More than 80% of Danes call themselves monarchists and they came in their thousands to celebrate his jubilee of 50 years of reign.
“Many of us have never known another monarch. Queen Margrethe is the very embodiment of Denmark and, over the years, she has put into words and feelings what we are as a people and as a nation,” responded Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in a press release.
The basis of her popularity is that “the queen is not at all political, she unites the nation instead of dividing it”, explained the historian Lars Hovebakke Sørensen during the celebrations of her 50 years of reign in 2022.
“She managed to be a queen who unified the Danish nation through many changes: globalization, the advent of a multicultural state, economic crises […] and the COVID-19 pandemic,” he explained.
Costume designer and scenographer, the queen, born in Copenhagen on April 16, 1940, also tried her hand at translation by developing in 1981, under a pseudonym and in collaboration with her husband, a Danish version of the work of Simone de Beauvoir All men are mortal.
But it is above all in drawing and painting that she distinguished herself: she illustrated numerous literary works, such as the reissue in 2002 of Lord of the Ringsby JR R Tolkien.
Relaxed monarchy
Prince Frederik, aged 55, has managed to quietly establish himself in the shadow of his mother, and now enjoys a popularity rating that exceeds 80%.
Passionate about the climate cause, he embodies the ideal of a relaxed monarchy. “When the time comes, I will lead the ship,” he assured during the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of his mother’s throne. “I will follow you, as you followed your father, and as Christian will follow me.”
A perfect French speaker from his father, the French diplomat Henri de Monpezat who became Prince Consort Henrik, Frederik also speaks English and German.
With his wife, Princess Mary, an Australian lawyer by training, they “gradually took over over the last few years, but very slowly and depending on the queen’s declining vitality,” notes historian Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen .
“Modern, “woke”, lovers of pop music, modern art and sports”, the couple “does not represent a potential revolution in relation to the queen who is conservative”, but a cautious adaptation to changes in the modern society, according to him.