Danish New Year’s Eves are to be savoured partly for their predictability. First, on the main Danish State TV channel, the vintage British TV comedy Dinner for One, with Freddie Frinton and May Warden, is broadcast. Then there is the countdown to midnight on the face of Copenhagen’s city hall clock, followed by desultory fireworks let off by individuals in the square below (on a shoestring budget compared to the millions of pounds Sadiq Khan spends annually to promote himself in London). Cut to exultant choirs singing in the new year at a Danish Lutheran church. And, of course, earlier in the evening, the monarch’s address, given since 1972 by our brilliant Queen Margrethe II.
Yet 31 December 2023 was not the New Year’s Eve Danes were expecting. Festivities across the land came to a sudden halt as Queen Margrethe ended her address by announcing that she would abdicate on 14 January. I was at a New Year’s Eve drinks and in conversation with a British journalist (not of this parish) at the time. ‘Abdication!’ they exclaimed. ‘Fantastic! What a great decision! Why don’t they all abdicate – all the European monarchs – and for good.’
I quietly reflected that, while I have heard similar sentiments expressed again and again in the UK, especially from left-wing intellectuals of the sort George Orwell said took ‘their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow’, I have yet to meet a Danish Republican. Not even one. That’s because the Danish monarchy enjoys vast, overwhelming support here: 85.4 per cent of Danes support the monarchy to some or a high degree. This compares to just 58 per cent of Brits who support the monarchy – and a paltry 32 per cent of British 18 to 24-year-olds.
Much of the Danish monarchy’s success is surely down to Queen Margrethe’s extraordinary personal qualities. When she acceded to the throne, only 42 per cent of Danes were in favour of keeping the monarchy, and one might reasonably have expected the arc of decline which began with the end of absolute monarchy to have ended with abolition. What has Margrethe gotten so right?
Well, for one thing, she deserves full credit for her comms skills. Compare, for example, Queen Margrethe’s New Year’s Eve address with her cousin King Charles III’s Christmas Day speech. Both, inevitably, dwelt upon 2023’s horrendous events in the Middle East. Here’s Charles:
At a time of increasingly tragic conflict around the World, I pray that we can also do all in our power to protect each other. The words of Jesus seem more than ever relevant: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Such values are universal, drawing together our Abrahamic family of religions, and other belief systems, across the Commonwealth and wider world.
All very well – yet I fear King Charles’s words will have gone straight over the heads of the individuals who spray-painted ‘They’re evil. Jew ban due’ at a skate park near my London home last week. I doubt these people even know what ‘Abrahamic’ means.
Here is Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, on the same topic:
The war [in Gaza] is causing anti-Semitism to spread again. It is unfortunate and shameful.
Tonight, I want to make an unequivocal call for all of us in Denmark to treat each other with respect.
We must step closer to each other, not distance ourselves from each other. We must remember that we are all human. This applies to both Jews and Palestinians.
Where Charles is elliptical and platitudinous, Margrethe is direct and forthright. Surely even the least capable Copenhagen skate-punk could appreciate her message.
The Danish monarchy has other advantages in its favour, not least the country’s relative homogeneity: only 8 per cent of Danes are immigrants, and 72 per cent are registered members of the Danish Church (can you imagine BBC1 daring to broadcast live from a British church at 12.01 a.m. on New Year’s Day? No, me neither).
Then there is the Danes’ unapologetic patriotism. Polling shows 57 per cent of Danes think their country is ‘better than others’, versus just 32 per cent in the UK. When I arrived at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport shortly before Christmas, I was greeted by a sea of Danish flags. Unless you are being picked up by Nigel Farage, don’t expect a Union Jack waving at you on arrival at Heathrow.
Queen Margrethe’s undeniable personal skills and the patriotism of a still fairly homogenous population have contributed to the strength of the Danish monarchy – and long may this endure under King Frederick X. Denmark is a small country of just six million people. It is often deemed ‘peripheral’ to Europe. Yet it has gained the world’s attention since it now simultaneously features Europe’s most valuable company (insulin and weight-loss giant Novo Nordisk) and the world’s largest charitable foundation (Novo Nordisk’s controlling shareholder, the $116 billion Novo Nordisk foundation).
There will rightly be considerable attention paid to the ‘Danish model’ in 2024, a year which will also feature a US presidential election. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if a certain 81-year-old US president paid attention as well to the entirely honourable abdication of 83-year-old Queen Margrethe II.
Comments