Queen Margaret II of Denmark will abdicate the throne on January 14

Queen Margaret II of Denmark announced Sunday that he plans to abdicate after 52 years on the throne and hand it over to his son, Crown Prince Frederick.

In her New Year’s speech, the 83-year-old monarch announced that she will abdicate on January 14, the anniversary of her own ascension to the throne at age 31 following the death of her father, King Frederick. IX.

Margaret, Europe’s longest-reigning living monarch, said the spinal surgery she underwent in 2023 made her “think about the future” and when to pass the responsibilities of the crown to his son. “I have decided that now is the right time.”he declared in his speech.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen paid tribute to him in a statement, in which she offered “a heartfelt gratitude to Her Majesty the Queen for her lifelong dedication and tireless work on behalf of the kingdom.”

Margaret is the “epitome of Denmark”, Frederiksen continued in his statement, and “Over the years he has put words and feelings in relation to who we are as a people and as a nation.”

The 6-foot-tall (1.82-meter) chain-smoking queen has been one of the most popular public figures in Denmark, where the monarch’s role is largely ceremonial. She frequently walked the streets of Copenhagen, virtually unescorted, and earned the admiration of Danes for her warm manner and talents as a linguist and designer.

A skilled skier, she was a member of a female unit of the Danish air force, and participated in judo classes and snow endurance tests. Margarita has remained strong, even as she gets older. In 2011, at age 70, she visited Danish forces in southern Afghanistan dressed in military uniform.

He received French and English classes from his earliest childhood, as well as Swedish. In addition to archaeology, he studied philosophy, political science and economics at the universities of Copenhagen, Aarhus and Cambridge, as well as at the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne in Paris.