Queen Margrethe with New Year’s speech after a year of scandal: – She must be careful what she says
– That the relationship with Princess Marie and Prince Joachim has become such a difficult pain, said Danish Queen Margrethe in her 51st New Year’s speech.
Great excitement was attached to Queen Margrethe’s annual New Year’s speech, after what has been a turbulent year for the Danish royal house.
Several experts believed the queen could not avoid mentioning the family drama that has characterized 2022.
And they were right.
– Difficulties and disagreements can arise in any family, including mine. The whole country has witnessed this, she said directly to the Danish people.
Furthermore, the queen continued to say that the family has had time to think.
– I am sure that the family can enter the new year together with trust, understanding and new courage, where she can be read in full in the speech in the royal house Homepage.
Gasoline on the fire
Expert on crisis communication, William Atak, believes that the Queen had options, but that she did not use any of them:
– She could either not say anything about it, something most people probably expected, or she could take responsibility and say sorry. Instead, she does neither, but chooses to vaguely say something about it, I don’t think is going to create further conflicts, he says to Extra Magazine.
– It seems very superficial, says Atak.
Royal house expert and political editor at Radio4, Thomas Larsen, believes for his part that the queen reached out to Prince Joachim and his family.
– I think it was incredibly wise of the queen that she addresses it so directly and acknowledges that it has been a reality and that they have disagreed, he says to DR.
Family conflict
Shockwaves went through Denmark when the queen decided in September that Prince Joachim’s child should stripped of his royal titles from 2023.
In an unusually blunt statement, Prince Joachim commented on the decision thus:
– I was given five days notice to tell my children that their identity has been taken from them. I am very, very sorry that they are sorry and that this is happening over their heads, he told it Danish newspaper BT.
At 18.00 on New Year’s Eve each year, over a million Danes sit down in front of screens to follow Margrethe’s traditional New Year’s speech from Amalienborg Castle.
But after a year marked by scandal, it was expected to be extra exciting this time:
– The Queen is cold in the face of a small, temporary headwind in the population. She is not going to live with the upheavals in the family hierarchy, said the Danish presenter Jes Dorph to Extra Magazine ahead of the speech.
The decision to the queen was justified in «that the four grandchildren must be able to shape their own lives to a greater extent, being limited by the special considerations and obligations as a formal connection to the Royal House as an institution».
Prince Joachim is the queen’s second son. He has a fire stable:
Princes Nikolai (23) and Felix (20) with Countess Alexandra and Prince Henrik (13) and Princess Athena (10) with his current wife, Princess Marie.
Read more about the case: The drama in the Danish royal house continues: – It is complicated
After a few days, the Queen took to Instagram to apologize:
– As a mother and grandmother, I have underestimated how affected my youngest son and his family feel. It makes a big impression, and I’m sorry for that, she wrote at the time.
In June, Prince Christian also became taken out of the controversial private school Herlufsholm after revelations about what was described as “unacceptable conditions”.
The scandalous story began when a documentary from Danish TV 2 Øst showed the documentary “Herlufsholm’s secrets”.
Except this year
The Queen has a tradition of focusing on her own family in her speech.
After a very atypical year, however, royal house expert Lars Hovbakke Sørensen believed that it will be difficult to avoid the family drama this time.
– It may well be that she makes an exception this time and says something about her own family, because otherwise she will receive criticism, he said Danish TV2 before the queen’s tale.
– The elephant in the room – the crises – I suppose will be mentioned, said Ekstra Bladets royal house commentator Kim Bach.
Royal house expert Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen believed at the outset that the queen faces a dilemma:
– She must be careful what she says, because it doesn’t take much before people can change their attitudes, he said Danish TV2.
– She takes a Charles
Although it is extra difficult to predict the content of the queen’s speech this time, Bach believes that one thing is certain:
– I think she will thank the population. She takes a Charles. She will thank the public for the great support she received when she celebrated her anniversary.
14 January 2022 celebrated Queen Margrethe’s 50 years on the throne.
Bach is sure that the queen will not avoid dangerous but important themes such as the war in Europe and inflation in Denmark in this year’s story either.
After Queen Elizabeth’s death, Queen Margrethe (82) is Europe’s longest-serving monarch. She has also become the only female monarch in the world.
Separate Christmas celebration
The royal family celebrated Christmas separately this year. While Queen Margrethe was in Denmark, Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Mary (50) and the children celebrated in the Crown Princess’s native Australia.
Prince Joachim and the family also stated that they were going to take a longer holiday abroad at Christmas, but did not say where.
DO YOU REMEMBER? It didn’t quite go according to plan when Germany’s former chancellor Angela Merkel had to greet Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II.
On Saturday evening, it became known that Princess Marie, who is married to Prince Joachim, will not attend the annual New Year’s event on 1 January. The New Year’s staff is a traditional festive dinner.
This is because she stayed in Paris with Prince Henrik, who has been ill, reports say Danish TV2.
Prince Joachim will participate as planned, the royal house informs in an e-mail to the same newspaper.