Denmark's oldest newspaper, Berlingske, is reporting that Queen Margrethe II made the decision to abdicate without confiding in her eldest son and heir apparent Crown Prince Frederik.
This was confirmed to the newspaper by the Royal Palace's communication head, Lena Balleby.
The Queen announced her abdication during her annual New Year's Eve speech, which shocked the Danish nation, and, it appears, members of her own family. The family was together for Christmas and the queen chose not to share her decision until three days before the end of the year, when she told Frederik of her decision to abdicate. She also informed her younger son, Prince Joachim., who will remain to attend the Abdication ceremony on Sunday, which will take place during the Council of State meeting.
Prince Joachim and his family live in Washington, D.C, where he works at the Danish Embassy where he is the Assistant Defence, Military, Naval & Air Attaché. His wife, Princess Marie, and their two young children returned to the USA after the New Year celebrations.
Jakob Steen Olsen, who is Berlingske's royal commentator, told Danish TV2 that Margrethe made the decision to abdicate "in solitary majesty." He added: "She wants to be the one who makes the decisions herself -- even the difficult ones."
Danish historian Lars Hovbakke Sorensen told Berlingske: "After all, such a change of throne requires a lot of planning and preparation. Three days is not long enough." Hovbakke was not surprised that the queen chose to not share her news for so long, but was surprised that she had kept Frederik out of the loop for so long.
He believes there are two logical reasons why the Queen delayed her announcement. "Either the queen has known about this for a while and didn't want others to know, so the rumors could roll and people would not be able to keep it quiet. We've seen that before.
"The other possibility is that the queen has only recently made the decision herself."
The historian also noted the now increased pressure on Prince Christian, who will become the Crown Prince when his father succeeds to the throne. When he celebrated his eighteenth birthday last year, the royal house announced that the young prince would not be taking on many public duties, but now that may change with the burden of being the heir apparent.
"He suddenly gets some official obligations that he should not have had for the time being. Among other things, it is usually the heir to the throne who steps in as regent when the sovereign cannot fulfill his official duties for some reason," said Hovbakke.
The palace announced on Wednesday that Margrethe will continue to act as Regent if the King and the Crown Prince are abroad.
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2024/01/queen-margrethe-ii-can-act-as-head-of.html
https://www.berlingske.dk/kongehus/jakob-steen-olsen-kun-dronningen-kendte-til-sit-chokerende-valg
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