The keys to the pomp surrounding the opening of the British Parliament

The king Charles III of the United Kingdom This Tuesday, for the first time as head of the British State, he read the legislative program of the Conservative Government of Rishi Sunak for this parliamentary year, in an event surrounded by all the pomp that marks tradition.

Carlos III had already read the call “speech” of the sovereign previously, when he was crown prince and had to replace his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, in May 2022, due to not feeling well.

As the United Kingdom does not have a written constitution, today’s ceremony at the Palace of Westminster, the seat of Parliament, is the country’s way of showing, through uses and customs, the constitutional importance of the king’s speech.

These are the highlights of the event

• King Charles III rode from Buckingham Palace to Parliament in a carriage drawn by six white horses, along with Queen Camilla, who was wearing her coronation white coat.
• Once in Parliament, the monarch went to the House of Lords (upper), where the lords dressed in ermine cloaks were waiting for him.
• Upon entering the upper chamber, the monarch wore the imperial crown, a piece weighing more than a kilo, which has 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, five rubies and 269 pearls.
• The imperial crown, which is kept year-round in the Tower of London next to Tower Bridge, is a symbol of the important relationship between monarchy and parliament.
• In the House of Lords, reserved for the nobility, Charles III complied with the required protocol by asking an emissary to call the Commons (deputies) to listen to his speech.
• After walking down the corridor that separates the two chambers in the Palace of Westminster, the emissary received a slam of the door as soon as she arrived at the Commons, a traditional gesture and symbol of the independence and democratic power of the lower house against the monarchy.
• Before the Commons, the emissary gave three strong knocks on the door with a cane to inform the deputies of the king’s call.
• After opening the door, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition leader Keir Starmer walked together to the House of Lords, followed by ministers and Labor representatives from each branch, and the rest of deputies.
• Once everyone was in the Upper House, the king read in just ten minutes the general lines of the Executive’s program for the next parliamentary period, after which a debate will begin in the Commons.