Queen Margrethe, Denmark's uniting figure, set to step down from throne

COPENHAGEN: During her 52-year reign Denmark's Queen Margrethe II has become a uniting figure for Danes, inspiring broad support for the monarchy at a time when royals across Europe sometimes struggle to stay relevant in modern society.

The queen, 83, who became the longest-serving monarch in Europe after Britain's Queen Elizabeth died in 2022, will pass the throne to her son, Frederik, on Sunday.

Nearly 80% of Danes support the monarchy, recent opinion polls show, compared with less than half when Margrethe took the throne in 1972.

Support for the queen has been most visible during the tours she made each summer around the country of 5.9 million people, when she spoke to ordinary people at length.

"I think the queen's popularity comes down to her ability to grasp her surroundings when she visits all the small towns, and also her immense knowledge of history and the country in general," said Annemette Nordkild, 55, a teacher.

Tore Leifer, editor at the Museum of National History in Denmark, said that Margrethe had been a shy and insecure teenager, who often seemed uncomfortable with her role as heir to the throne.

"She gradually grew into a very confident and strong person, a woman who really is grounded in herself, who knows what she's doing and has created this role as a uniting symbol for the whole nation," he said.

Margrethe stunned the nation with her surprise announcement on New Year's Eve that she had decided to abdicate. In the past she had said several times she would stay in the role for life. In an interview in 2022, she said:

"There are things that don't have to change. Governments change, they should, they must, but the sovereign is there. Everything doesn't have to be different all of the time. You belong to your country. You belong to a whole nation."

The queen is often pictured in bright, flowery outfits, many of which she designed herself, including a long raincoat made out of a waxed tablecloth, with a yellow collar and a matching hat. This appeals in a design-conscious nation that also has one of the oldest monarchies in the world.

"She isn't smart and modern in terms of being trendy; she has her own style with the red raincoats and floral raincoats, and I think that's extremely cool," said Lone Percy-Smith, 60, a professor.

Bucking modern trends, Margrethe was a long-time smoker and was often portrayed with a cigarette in hand in Danish pop culture. She had to quit ahead of back surgery in February 2023 - an operation that she said made her think about the need to pass the baton to the next generation.

The queen started drawing and painting at an early age, and has since worked on church textiles, graphics, book illustrations, decoupages, scenography and embroidery, many of which have been exhibited in Denmark and abroad.

She made sketches for a Danish reissue of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" in 1977, and was recently part of the creative team behind the ballet "The Snow Queen" at Copenhagen's Tivoli, based on the fairytale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

'FUSS' ABOUT BEING A WOMAN

Margrethe was born in 1940 to King Frederik IX and Swedish-born Queen Ingrid. She was the eldest of three sisters and became the king's heir in 1953 after a constitutional amendment allowing women to inherit the throne.

She was crowned queen aged 31, Denmark's first female monarch since the 1380s.

"There was so much fuss about me being a woman. It wasn't very funny, quite frankly," she said in an interview in 2019.

"I have argued in this context that it is not my merit, either that I am a woman or that I am head of state. It is a biological coincidence," she said.

In 1967, she married French diplomat Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, who served as her royal consort until his death in 2018. The couple's two sons are Crown Prince Frederik, who will become King Frederik X on Sunday, and Prince Joachim.

Margrethe, who will keep her title as queen after she leaves the throne, became the longest-sitting monarch in Denmark's history in July.

"I've never known another queen, so for me it's terrible that she's stepping down," said student Emma Stangaard Jensen, 23. "She has done a lot of good for our country, but having a new king can also provide a breath of fresh air."

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