– A very unexpected announcement, this is not something you expect Scandinavian monarchs to do. The normal thing in the Nordics is to sit until you die, says history professor Dick Harrison.
Queen Margrethe says in her New Year’s speech that the decision has evolved and that a decisive reason is the back surgery she underwent in February.
Dick Harrison believes that Queen Margrethe’s decision may in the long run affect the other Nordic royal houses, where Norway in particular has an aging and sometimes crass monarch.
– This is a family decision and we don’t know the reasons behind it, but you can very well imagine that other royal houses also think that they can now deviate from tradition. But that is speculation, says Dick Harrison.
“A nuclear bomb”
The author and royal expert Roger Lundgren was also taken to bed by Queen Margrethe’s announcement.
– This is not a small bomb, this is an atomic bomb, but something has obviously happened that makes her feel that she is no longer up to the task, he says.
He himself has met the Danish queen on several occasions and testifies to her great popularity in her home country.
– It doesn’t matter who you talk to in Denmark, royalist or republican, everyone loves Daisy as she is called, says Roger Lundgren.
– In addition, she has a very popular crown prince couple in Frederik and Mary so she leaves the throne in safe hands, even if Frederik will never come close to the popularity that his mother enjoyed over the years.
Invisible Pact
Queen Margrethe has previously said that she would hold the office until “I fall off the peg”. An attitude shared by Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, who emphasized that he will complete his duties as long as he can.
– In the Scandinavian context, an abdication is something very negatively charged. In addition, there has always been something that could be called an invisible pact between the Scandinavian monarchs, because if one were to abdicate, the demand on the others to do the same would be very great, says Roger Lundgren and adds:
– It is clear that there will now be a debate in Sweden about whether the king should hand over to Crown Princess Victoria. It doesn’t have to mean that it’s about thinking that the king is worse than Victoria, but that you actually treat him to being a happy pensioner for a couple of years.