The Eurocentric: The Role of Monarchy In Modern Denmark And Europe
AP
Queen Margrethe of Denmark rang in the new year by making the shocking announcement that she would soon abdicate the throne. She served as Queen for 52 years, the second-longest period in history for the Danish monarchy and the longest ever for a female monarch. King Frederick X, Queen Margrethe’s son, took the throne on January 14th. For observers outside of Denmark and other European kingdoms, it can be perplexing that Northern European nations like Denmark, Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands are some of the strongest democracies yet maintain monarchies. According to the Democracy Matrix, Denmark and Norway are ranked first and second in the 2020 edition for their quality of democracy while Sweden is ranked 4th, the Netherlands is 7th, Belgium 9th, and Spain ranks just outside the top ten in 11th place. What some critics consider antiquated is still a cherished tradition within these nations that does not impede democratic governance. Monarchies should remain in place as long as the citizens feel they benefit from it. Danish citizens feel the monarchy provides them with a sense of magic that justifies the cost to taxpayers. As long as taxpayers are satisfied and feel they benefit from the continuance of monarchies, there is no reason to end them.
Rather than only buying a subscription to a streaming service such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, or Hulu, citizens of European Kingdoms are paying taxes for the immersive experience. Instead of only being able to view royal families in a television series such as The Crown or Bridgerton, citizens of modern European Kingdoms get to witness events such as coronations in real life. For this reason, additional taxes are worth it to Danes to experience these magical moments.
Role of Monarchies In Modern Europe
To understand how European nations have strong democracies yet support monarchies, it is important to understand the modern role of the royal families. While Kings and Queens used to be the rulers in much of Europe, modern monarchs do not have the same political power these families once had. Instead, the monarchy is the ceremonial head of state and serves as a symbol of the nation rather than wielding power. In Denmark, similar to the other monarchies in Europe, the ruling royal formally approves the new government after the latest election, approves new legislation that was passed by the parliament, and specifically in Denmark even approves each new citizen. Monarchs from these nations also represent their nations at home and on trips abroad. King Frederick X visited Poland on his first official trip outside Denmark since he took the throne. The King promoted Danish products, met with Polish President Andrzej Duda, and visited NATO troops. As his wife was not there with him, it is not officially considered his first trip abroad, by Danish tradition.
Public Support
Kingdoms in Europe are likely to retain their royal families as long as they enjoy a majority of support amongst the public. In Denmark, public support is particularly high. This may partially be due to the family’s participation in Danish society rather than segregating itself. Children from the royal family attend public schools and members go out shopping themselves rather than sending a servant. Despite costing the taxpayers money, the Danish royal family maintains high support due to spending eight times less money than the British royals. While being cheaper than the British royals, the Danish monarchy still allows citizens to have a firsthand experience of living in a fairy tale. Denmark is one of the oldest monarchies in the world dating back to 958 A.D., and there is a sense of pride amongst Danes about maintaining the tradition.
Currently, European monarchs enjoy positive support from their citizens except in Spain. Compared to the other monarchs, this may be the result of scandals involving the Spanish royal family. The first king since the end of the dictatorship in 1975, Juan Carlos I, currently lives in self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi. His first scandal occurred when he shot his brother while allegedly cleaning a gun he received from former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco himself. Juan Carlos I allegedly cheated on his wife with 2,000 women over 16 years, starting in 1976, just one year after he became King. The former King has also been accused of corruption which motivated him to step down. During the height of Spain's economic crisis in 2008 which saw an unemployment rate of 23 percent for all workers and 50 percent for young workers, Juan Carlos I allegedly went on a 44,000 euro trip paid by the government to hunt elephants.
Queen Letizia of Spain has not helped change the mind of Spaniards as she allegedly cheated on King Felipe with her ex-brother-in-law from 2002 to 2011, meanwhile, she married the King in 2004. This alleged indiscretion has not been proven, yet still has hurt her reputation. Her text messages incriminate her with a businessman accused of corruption who she refers to as her yoga mate. It would later be revealed that besides being her yoga mate, the businessman was a friend of the King himself as well. This forced the palace to attempt to calm the public by officially declaring that the friendship was over. All these scandals have turned the Spanish Monarchy into a royal pain rather than a fairy tale.
However, not all hope is lost for the Spanish monarchy as Princess Leonor, the future of the monarchy, currently enjoys the highest approval rating of any member of the royal family. If Princess Leonor can avoid becoming embroiled in scandal, she may be able to not only restore trust in the Spanish monarchy once again but help the sense of magic return to the Kingdom of Spain. Considering how poised Princess Leonor appears in public, there is a strong chance that she will live up to the expectation of a royal behaving as if they are in a fairy tale.
Other European nations such as Italy decided to cease to exist as kingdoms. In Italy, the nation voted to become a republic in 1946 by a margin of two million votes. Southern Italy supported the monarchy while the more industrialized north did not. The Last King, Victor Emmanuel III, is blamed for allowing fascism to take over the nation and for even supporting Benito Mussolini. There is some speculation that the King’s inaction was due to being unprepared for the role yet regardless, his reign led to disastrous results for Italy and atrocities like the occupation of Ethiopia and Albania and 457,000 Italian casualties during WWII, 156,000 being civilians.
Conclusion
As long as there continues to be enough support for the monarchy in a given European nation such as Denmark, it is likely to continue to play a role in that nation. Currently, the monarchy most at risk is Spain, where the majority do not support the monarchy. The continuation of the monarchy in Spain will depend on whether Princess Leonor can maintain public support and restore magic to the throne. As monarchs no longer exert large amounts of political power over the citizens in their kingdoms and are symbolic figureheads, they have found their place as part of preserving the culture of their countries. Rather than becoming outdated, European monarchies have been relatively successful in modernizing to remain relevant in a cultural sense, allowing their citizens to experience a real-life fairy tale in modern times. Rather than only being able to watch fairy tales in movies and TV series, the residents of Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Spain can also experience it in real life. As long as this remains true, European monarchs will retain their titles in the few remaining kingdoms.
