PM thanks and praise for Queen Margrethe II
Denmark will have a new Head of State when Queen Margrethe steps down on January 14th, and her importance cannot be overstated, according to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, delivering her annual New Year’s speech, broadcast live across the country from the Marienborg official residence on Monday.
“Dear Queen Margrethe. What you have achieved over almost 52 years is an outstanding achievement. Your importance cannot be overestimated. You have been our anchor in stormy winds. Our conscience in life’s important matters. Our companion in the decades when the Denmark of the future rose. You have been our gathering point in the near and in the difficult issues,” PM Frederiksen said.
In the past, Queen Margrethe has stressed that the tradition is for Denmark’s Head of State to remain monarch until his or her death. But in her traditional New Year’s Address on Sunday evening she said her ailing health in the wake of a serious back operation, had brought her to the conclusion that ‘now’ was the time to hand over the throne to her son. It is the first time that a Danish monarch who has held the hereditary throne, has abdicated. The only other Danish monarch to have willingly given up the Danish throne was Erik III Lam in 1146, reportedly as a result of illness, according to Denmark’s National Museum.
Denmark has had hereditary monarchs since the introduction by Frederik III, of absolute monarchy in Denmark-Norway in 1660.
Queen Margrethe II is the longest serving monarch in Danish history. On January 14, the date she was pronounced Queen in 1972 on the death of her father King Frederik IX, she will have served as Monarch and Head of State for 52 years.
PM Frederiksen said the Queen’s reign was the history of modern Denmark. “Most of us haven’t known another ruler. The Queen is our witness to life,” said PM Frederiksen adding that when the Queen assumed the throne on the day of her father’s death 52 years ago on a rainy January day in 1972, it was a time of upheaval. She continued that the monarch was leaving a country that is richer and with people with good opportunities. But the world is changing, as is Denmark. “That’s exactly why we need what unites us. For generations, the Queen has been our rallying point. A point of reference when everything else was in motion. Part of what we come from. And who we are. The Queen has managed to speak to us as a people. Both new and old Danes. Both young and old people,” she said.
It remains uncertain as to what will happen between now and January 14th, when the Queen will step down. On that day, there will be a Council of State at Christiansborg, and the Prime Minister will proclaim Crown Prince Frederik to be King Frederik X. Modern Denmark does not practice coronations as such. The monarch is proclaimed by the prime minister, normally from the balcony of the Royal Palace in Copenhagen. It is not immediately clear, however, how the proclamation will take place on January 14th.
/ritzau/