STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II announced Sunday that she plans to abdicate to make way for her son, Crown Prince Frederik.
The Queen announced during her New Year’s address that she will abdicate on January 14, which is the 52nd anniversary of her own accession to the throne at the age of 31 after the death of her father, King Frederik IX.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen confirmed the decision in a news release honoring the 83-year-old monarch, offering “sincere thanks to Her Majesty the Queen for her lifelong dedication and tireless efforts for the Kingdom.”
Margrethe is the “symbol of Denmark” in Frederiksen’s read statement, and “throughout the years has put words and feelings into who we are as a people and as a nation.”
The 6-foot-tall, chain-smoking Margrethe has become one of the most popular public figures in Denmark, where the king’s role is largely ceremonial. He often walked the streets of Copenhagen unaccompanied and won the admiration of the Danes for his friendly demeanor and his talent as a linguist and designer.
A keen skier, she was a member of the Danish women’s air force unit as a princess, taking part in judo courses and endurance tests in the snow. Margrethe remains tough even as she grows older. In 2011, at the age of 70, he visited Danish troops in southern Afghanistan wearing a military jumpsuit.
As king, he traversed the country and regularly visited Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, two semi-independent territories that are part of the Realm of Denmark, and was met everywhere by cheering crowds.
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark will abdicate in favor of her son. AP
Denmark has the oldest monarchy in Europe, which traces its lineage to the Viking king Gorm the Old, who died in 958. Although Magrethe is head of state, the Danish Constitution strictly forbids his involvement in party politics.
But the queen was clearly well versed in the law and knew the content of the legislation she was being asked to sign.
He received training in French and English from his early years, as well as Swedish from his mother. In addition to archaeology, he studied philosophy, political science and economics at universities in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Cambridge along with the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne in Paris.
Since his birth on May 26, 1968, Frederik André Henrik Christian has been the heir to the Danish throne.
He is the eldest child of Queen Margrethe and her late French-born husband Prince Henrik, who died in February 2018. Frederik, 55, has a younger brother, Prince Joachim.
Since the age of 18, he has served as a regent whenever his mother was out of the kingdom on official duties, shaking hands with thousands and receiving foreign dignitaries.
“In the new year, Crown Prince Frederik will be proclaimed king. Crown Princess Mary will be queen. The kingdom will have a new regent and a new royal couple. We can expect all this with the knowledge that they are ready for the responsibility and the task,” said the prime minister’s statement.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
