Denmark’s Queen Margrethe’s announcement that she is abdicating hit like a bomb not only in her home country. An expert with whom TT has been in contact speaks of a major breach of tradition.
– 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 historian 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 crass monarch.
– This is a family decision and we do not know the reasons behind it, but you can very well imagine that other royal houses also think that they can deviate from tradition, but that is speculation, says Dick Harrison.