{"id":42687,"date":"2024-01-01T22:13:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T22:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/denmarks-queen-margrethe-ii-announces-surprise-abdication\/"},"modified":"2024-01-01T22:13:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T22:13:05","slug":"denmarks-queen-margrethe-ii-announces-surprise-abdication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/denmarks-queen-margrethe-ii-announces-surprise-abdication\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark\u2019s Queen Margrethe II announces surprise abdication"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Denmark\u2019s popular Queen Margrethe II, Europe\u2019s longest-serving monarch, said on Sunday that she would abdicate on January 14 and pass the baton to her son Crown Prince Frederik.<\/p>\n

Margrethe, 83, has reigned for 52 years and has been Europe\u2019s only reigning queen after the death of Britain\u2019s Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n

She has been hailed for subtly modernising Danish royalty in her half-century on the throne.<\/p>\n

She made the surprise announcement during her traditional New Year\u2019s Eve speech broadcast on Danish television, citing her age and health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn two weeks time I have been Queen of Denmark for 52 years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That length of time would take its time on anyone, she added. \u201cOne cannot undertake as much as one managed in the past\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cOn 14th January, 2024 \u2014 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father \u2014 I will step down as Queen of Denmark. I will hand over the throne to my son Crown Prince Frederik.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chain-smoking queen has repeatedly said she would never abdicate, but back surgery she underwent in February \u201cgave cause to thoughts about the future \u2014 whether now would be an appropriate time to pass on the responsibility to the next generation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The queen, known for her artistic talents, has been hugely popular in Denmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has managed to be a queen who has united the Danish nation in a time of large changes: globalisation, the appearance of the multicultural state, economic crises in the 1970s, 1980s and again in 2008 to 2015, and the pandemic,\u201d historian Lars Hovebakke Sorensen told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe basis of her popularity is that the queen is absolutely non-political,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Queen of arts<\/h2>\n

With sparkling blue eyes and a broad smile, she is known for her relaxed and playful side, as well as for her involvement in Denmark\u2019s cultural scene.<\/p>\n

A painter as well as a costume and set designer, she has worked with the Royal Danish Ballet and Royal Danish Theatre on numerous occasions.
\nShe studied at Cambridge and the Sorbonne in Paris, and is fluent in English, French, German and Swedish.<\/p>\n

She has also translated plays, including Simone de Beauvoir\u2019s \u201cAll Men Are Mortal\u201d with her French-born husband under a pseudonym.<\/p>\n

But it is primarily her paintings and drawings that have caught the public\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

She has illustrated several books, including a Danish 2002 edition of J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d, and her paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Denmark and abroad.<\/p>\n

Crown Prince Frederik, 55, is meanwhile the embodiment of the country\u2019s relaxed, liberal monarchy.<\/p>\n

Passionate about the environment, he has discreetly imposed himself in the shadow of his mother, championing Denmark and its drive to find solutions to the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the time comes, I will guide the ship,\u201d he said in a speech celebrating his mother\u2019s half century on the throne.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will follow you, as you followed your father\u201d in leading the thousand-year-old institution, Prince Frederik added.<\/p>\n

He met his wife Mary Donaldson, an Australian lawyer, at a Sydney bar during the 2000 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

They have tried to give their four children as normal an upbringing as possible, sending them mainly to state schools. Their eldest, Prince Christian, who recently turned 18, was the first Danish royal to go to daycare.<\/p>\n

Frederik and Mary are \u201cmodern, woke, lovers of pop music, modern art and sports,\u201d said historian Sebastian Olden-Jorgensen, adding that they would represent a careful transition to the times.<\/p>\n

Frederik has said that he sees himself complementing his mother, a polymath who is an accomplished writer and artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou paint, I exercise. You dig for buried objects from the past, I buried my head in order not to be recognised during my time in the armed forces. You are a master of words. I am sometimes at a loss for them,\u201d he joked during the queen\u2019s jubilee celebrations.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denmark\u2019s popular Queen Margrethe II, Europe\u2019s longest-serving monarch, said 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\u2019s only reigning queen after the death of Britain\u2019s Elizabeth II. She has been hailed for subtly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/011231129ca6046.jpg?r=123432","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t