Queen Margaret of Denmark announces her abdication after 52 years on the throne | International

Queen Margaret of Denmark announced this Sunday that she would abdicate on January 14 after 52 years on the throne. The 83-year-old monarch will be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederick.

The Queen of Danes’ announcement came during her New Year’s speech. Two years ago, Margaret II celebrated 50 years on the throne, which made her Europe’s only monarch and the oldest, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Last February, he underwent successful back surgery. “The operation made me think about the future. “If the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation,” he said in his speech. “I decided it was the right time. On January 14, 2024, 52 years after succeeding my beloved father, I will cease to be Queen of Denmark,” declared the monarch, who alluded to the “wear and tear” of time since “we cannot no longer manage what we “I could before.” “I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederick,” he added.

In Denmark, as in other Nordic monarchies, there is no tradition of abdication and it is usual for monarchs to remain so until their death. Margaret II had always reiterated in public that she had no intention of leaving the throne and that the status of queen was “a lifelong duty”. The firstborn, aged 55, will ascend the throne the same day of the abdication, after a Council of State, under the name of Frederick massive support. and the warmth I have received over the years,” the monarch said in her speech, asking for “the same trust and affection” for the future king and his wife, Princess Mary. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen thanked the Queen in a statement for her “lifelong dedication and tireless work for Denmark.”

Margaret Alexandrina Thorhildur Ingrid, the Queen’s full name, enjoys great popularity among the Danes, who appreciate her discreet and creative personality. She has managed to stay out of major scandals and the ones she has experienced have been resolved naturally, including the serious setback that caused her husband Prince Henry, who died in 2018, to refuse to be buried at the royal pantheon in Roskilde Cathedral. . Enrique, who has never hidden his dissatisfaction with his role and has been involved in several public insults, caused a sensation in August 2017 by accusing his wife in an interview of taking him for a “fool”, while professing his love for her and announcing in protest against her desire to be cremated. Less than a month later, the royal family announced that the prince was suffering from dementia and was retiring from public life, and in February the following year, Enrique died weeks after being admitted for a pulmonary infection. “It was his decision. He was a free person. And I respect that,” Margarita said months later.

In September 2022, the Queen became the center of a family disagreement when she decided to strip the title of prince from four of her eight grandchildren. Margaret’s decision did not affect the children of Frederick of Denmark, heir to the throne, but it did affect the four descendants of Prince Joachim, her youngest son. He did this, as he explained in a statement, so that they could live without the “considerations and obligations that formal affiliation with the royal household as an institution entails.” But his son Joaquín publicly criticized him for this approach: “It is never pleasant to see your children being mistreated like this.” Given the controversy generated, Margaret of Denmark ended up asking for forgiveness in a new statement. Their jubilee events in November brought the family together after discord.

The Danish monarch is notable for her artistic interests, which include everything from ballet sets and costumes, to plays and even films; to the design of the monograms of the members of the Royal House or to his love of painting. And this prolific and lasting activity is appreciated in Denmark, even if renowned art critics have questioned the artistic quality of his paintings, which has not prevented prestigious museums from devoting exhibitions to him. The Danish monarch was also encouraged to illustrate The Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien, already translated into Danish All men are mortalby Simone de Beauvoir, and the trilogy on the Fall of the Roman Empire by Stig Strömholm, in addition to designing the sets and costumes for a film on the Netflix platform.

Born in 1940, the daughter of King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid, Margaret became her father’s heir in 1953, at the age of 31, after the approval of a constitutional amendment allowing women to inherit the throne. In 1967, she married French diplomat Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, who would be her royal husband until his death in 2018. The couple’s two children were Crown Prince Frédéric, who would become King Frederick X, and Prince Joachim. The heir married Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, an Australian, in 2004.

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