An angry son settles his accounts through the press before his mother tries to put the pieces back together: the so placid royal house of Denmark faces an unprecedented scandal.
• Read also: His grandchildren stripped of their princely titles
At issue: the withdrawal by the very popular Queen Margrethe II of the princely titles to the four children of her youngest son, Joachim, 53, from January 1.
For the sovereign, it is a question of allowing Nikolai, 23, and Felix, 20 – born from a first marriage – as well as Henrik, 13, and Athena, 10, to lead their lives freely, without bearing the obligations of the crown.
AFP
But also, like other European monarchies, to limit the size of the royal family, for the sake of modernity.
“Holding a royal title implies a number of commitments and duties which, in the future, will fall to a smaller number of members of the royal family,” justified the only female monarch in Europe in a press release.
For his son, on the other hand, it is a snub, and he has chosen to express his bitterness in the press.
“On May 5, I was presented with a plan. That all this idea of the identity of my children would be taken away from them when they were each 25 years old (…) And then, I received five days’ notice, because the decision was accelerated, ”he said. he lamented with the daily BT
His first wife, Countess Alexandra, had previously, already in BT, evoked a “shock” while his eldest son said he was unhappy and “very perplexed”.
Such an unpacking surprised, while the oldest royal family in Europe seemed to be in good shape on the occasion of the jubilee of 50 years of Margrethe II on the throne.
“In Denmark, it is not traditional for members of the royal family to discuss with each other in public,” historian Lars Hovbakke Sørensen told AFP.
Prince Joachim regretted having “unfortunately” heard nothing from his mother, nor from his brother, Crown Prince Frederik, since the decision.
AFP
“It’s also family. Or what we can call that, “he said to BT
Another scratch: his wife, Princess Marie, of French origin, describes in this interview as “complicated” the relationship they have with the heir couple.
It did not take more to exhume family resentment, the press recalling that, according to the princess, their move to France in 2019 had been imposed on them.
The Queen’s decision, similar to that taken by the King of Sweden a few years ago, does not surprise royal chroniclers.
It is “natural, reasonable and necessary”, argues historian Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen.
Anxious to adapt the monarchy to changes in society, Margrethe II, had decided in 2016 that only the eldest of the children of her eldest son, who all bear a princely title, would receive an appanage in adulthood.
AFP
His recent announcement comes in this line.
“She wisely chose to do it herself and not leave that task to her successor, the Crown Prince. It is much easier for her to do this to her son than for him to do it to his brother later,” said the expert.
Without going back on her decision, the queen expressed her regret on Monday for having “underestimated how much (her) youngest son and his family (…) are affected”, saying that she wanted to find “how to navigate through this situation. “.
According to a survey by the organization Voxmeter, 50.6% of Danes support his decision and 23.3% consider it bad.
If the scandals have never had sensational consequences, the Danish royal family is not at its first scandal.
In 2002, the late Prince Consort Henrik had left Copenhagen with a bang, furious, to take refuge in his wine estate in Cayx in Lot, France.
Cause of his wrath: his wife had asked Frederik, and not himself, for a vows ceremony. A shame for the one who has often complained of not having the title of king.
Six months before his death, the French-born prince, who suffered from dementia at the end of his life, also caused a scandal in the summer of 2017 by claiming that he did not wish to be buried with his wife.
