Majority want to see queen ride off into the sunset

Over 60 percent of the respondents of a recent poll say Queen Margrethe should hand over the throne, but a historian says that the results are actually a sign of empathy for the queen

admin

Feb 14, 2013

Thank you for your service, now step aside.

That's the message that a majority of Danes want to send to Queen Margrethe II, according to a new poll conducted by YouGov for metroXpress newspaper.

Some 26 percent of the more than 1,000 poll participants said that the queen should surrender the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik. An additional 35 percent said she should make way for Frederik, but just not right now. In all, over 60 percent said that the queen should voluntarily abdicate the throne.

However, Lars Hovbakke Sørensen, a historian who has researched the Royal Family, told metroXpress that just because more Danes than not wanted her to retire, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are tired of the queen.

"I think more that it is a sign that the way we view working life has changed," Sørensen told the freesheet. "There is generally a greater understanding that the queen should also be entitled to retire and enjoy her old age. Therefore I think it is a sign of sympathy for the queen."

Regardless of the poll respondents' motives, the 72-year-old queen has previously said that she has no plans to step aside and will remain Denmark's monarch until she dies.