Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II (83) surprised everyone when she announced her abdication in her traditional New Year’s Eve speech
The world’s only queen and Europe’s longest-serving monarch will abdicate on January 14, after 52 years of reign. She is leaving the throne, as she announced, to her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik.
Who is Frederik, the new king of Denmark: From spoiled prince to environmental activist
As reported from the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, unlike British royal customs, there will be no official coronation ceremony. The assumption of the throne will be on the day when Frederik Andre Henrik Christian will become King of Denmark and head of state, which includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
A passionate campaigner for the environment, Crown Prince Frederik, who will turn 56 in May, has quietly imposed himself in the shadow of his very popular mother, advocating for Denmark and its desire to find solutions to the climate crisis.
When he was younger, Frederik was bothered by media attention and the knowledge that he would one day become king, claims Gite Reder, an expert on the Danish royal family.
Frederik blamed his parents for neglecting him because of their obligations. He sought solace in fast cars and a fast life, and the early nineties he gained a reputation as a spoiled and dissolute prince. It was considered someone who likes nightlife and parties.
The image of the heir to the throne began to change when he graduated from Aarhus University in 1995, as the first Danish royal to obtain a higher education.
During his studies, he also stayed at Harvard in the United States, where he was enrolled under the pseudonym Frederik Henriksen. This false surname was granted to his father, the French diplomat Henri di Monpiset, who became Prince Consort Henri when he married Margret.
Frederik began to mature during his training in the Danish army. He served in the Frogman Marine Corps, where he was nicknamed Pingo (Penguin) and was one of only four out of 300 recruits to pass all the tests in 1995.
In 2000, he participated in a four-month skiing expedition of 3,500 kilometers across Greenland. Because of this daring and adventurous spirit, he ended up in the hospital after a snowmobile accident.
On his 50th birthday, he started a running event in five Danish cities called the “Royal Run” in which he and his family members participated, as well as more than 70,000 Danes. The race has become traditional and was canceled only during the pandemic.
Crown Prince Frederik also established a foundation that provides financial assistance to students of political science, for one-year studies at Harvard, as well as financial support for scientific expeditions, especially in Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
“He is an athlete, attends concerts and football matches, which makes him more approachable than his mother,” Rederova described him in these words.
“I don’t want to lock myself in a castle. I want to be myself, a human being,” he once said, insisting that he would stick to that even after taking the throne.
Crown Prince Frederik speaks English, French, and German. With his wife Mary Donaldson, an Australian lawyer whom he met in a bar in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics, he has four children, sons Christian and Vincent and daughters Isabella and Josephine.
(Antena M)