Queen Margrethe II Of Denmark To Abdicate After 52 Years On The Throne
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Europe’s longest-serving monarch, announced on Sunday that she would abdicate on January 14 and pass the baton to her son Crown Prince Frederik.
Margrethe, 83, has reigned for 52 years and has been Europe’s only reigning queen after the demise of Britain’s Elizabeth II.
In February, she underwent a successful back surgery.
“The surgery naturally gave rise to thinking about the future, whether the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation,” she disclosed in the speech on Sunday.
“I have decided that now is the right time. On 14 January 2024 – 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father – I will step down as queen of Denmark,” she said.
“I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik,” she added.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen confirmed the decision in a news release.
He paid tribute to the monarch, offering a “heartfelt thank you to Her Majesty the Queen for her lifelong dedication and tireless efforts for the Kingdom”.
In Denmark, formal power resides with the elected parliament and its government.
The monarch is expected to stay above partisan politics, representing the nation with traditional duties ranging from state visits to national day celebrations.
Born in 1940, Margrethe has been one of the most popular public figures in Denmark.
The 1.82m (6-foot) tall, chain-smoking monarch often walked the streets of Copenhagen virtually unescorted and won the admiration of Danes for her warm manners and her talents as a linguist and designer.
A keen skier, she was a member of a Danish women’s air force unit as a princess, taking part in judo courses and endurance tests in the snow. Margrethe remained tough even as she grew older.
In 2011, at age 70, she visited Danish troops in southern Afghanistan wearing a military jumpsuit.
As monarch, she crisscrossed the country and regularly visited Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, the two semi-independent territories that are part of the Danish Realm.
