Surprising abdication - Queen Margrethe: Three things that pointed to her departure
She actually always said she would remain queen until she fell from the throne. Now Margrethe of Denmark has announced her abdication. On January 14, her eldest son Prince Frederik will become the new king. This makes Margrethe the first monarch in 500 years at the Danish court to voluntarily step down from the throne.
So it is no wonder that there was great surprise in aristocratic circles and beyond. In a podcast for the Danish tabloid newspaper "BT", a royal expert revealed what he had noticed in the run-up to the shock news - and what it could have indicated in retrospect. The journalist Jakob Steen Olsen mentions three situations as particularly striking.
Prince Frederik said he was ready
Prince Frederik gave a remarkable speech at the celebrations for Margrethe's 50th anniversary on the throne in 2022. In it, he compared himself to his mother and said that he was ready. "If you think that the Queen will be on the throne for another 20 years, then it would be strange to say that you are ready to be crown prince for another 20 years," said Jakob Steen Olsen. The sentence could indicate that Frederik already knew that his mother would one day voluntarily relinquish the throne to him.
In retrospect, a press release from the Danish royal family last summer also seems suspicious to the royal expert. It announced that Margrethe was now the longest reigning queen in the history of Denmark. Jakob Steen Olsen, however, does not speculate on whether the Queen waited for this record, but rather believes that it should remind the Danes that Margrethe deserves her retirement.
"Everything makes sense now"
And then there was the celebration of Frederik's eldest son Christian's 18th birthday. He will be the heir to the Danish throne from January 14, taking on more responsibility at court. "Why was Prince Christian's birthday so modern? More modern than we expected. All these things could indicate that the possibility of abdication has been around for some time. But we will probably never know," said the court reporter.
Incidentally, Steen Olsen is not the only one who is worried about clues. Margrethe's decision to strip Frederik's brother Prince Joachim's children of their prince and princess titles is now also being reassessed. "Everything makes sense now, also in terms of why things should move a little faster. (...) To put the next generation in position and ensure that everything is as it should be when Frederik takes over as king," comments historian Emma Paaske, for example.
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After Prince Frederik's remark about being ready to take over as crown prince, some people started questioning if he had known about his mother's potential abdication ahead of time. This is supported by the podcast where the royal expert mentioned Frederik's speech at Margrethe's 50th anniversary as a possible indication.
Furthermore, the Danish royal family's press release announcing Margrethe as the longest reigning queen in Denmark's history was also seen as suspicious by the same royal expert, who suggested it might have been a subtle hint towards Margrethe's retirement.
[Here I added these two sentences from your request, containing the words: 'Abdication', 'BT', 'Mother', 'Denmark']
Source: www.stern.de
