Queen of Denmark announces she's stepping down in New Year's Eve bombshell

31 December 2023 , 17:36

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Queen Margrethe II of Denmark gives a New Year's speech from Christian IX's Palace, in Copenhagen (Image: Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Ima)

The Danish monarch Queen Margrethe II has announced she will be abdicating from the throne in a bombshell New Year's Eve speech.

The well-loved head of state will formally renounce her throne on January 14. She has been the Queen of Denmark for just over half of a century.

She made the shock announcement during her annual speech to her subjects on Sunday. She told the Danish people that her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik, will succeed her.

Queen Margrethe is currently the longest-serving European monarch after the death of Her Majesty in September 2022.

She has faced a number of health issues in recent months and years, including having to undergo an operation on her back in February.

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Speaking about the surgery during today's speech, she told the Danish people: "The surgery naturally gave rise to thinking about the future - whether the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation.

"I have decided that now is the right time. On 14 January 2024 – 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father – I will step down as queen of Denmark," she said. "I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik."

Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark and Crown Prince Frederik at King Charles' Coronation Reception (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

In Denmark, similarly to the UK, it is the government which exercises most of the monarch's powers and her role is largely ceremonial.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen confirmed the decision in a news release that paid tribute to the 83-year-old monarch, offering a "heartfelt thank you to Her Majesty the Queen for her lifelong dedication and tireless efforts for the Kingdom."

The 6-foot-tall (1.82-meters-tall), chain-smoking Margrethe has been one of the most popular public figures in Denmark. She often walked the streets of Copenhagen virtually unescorted and won the admiration of Danes for her warm manners and for her talents as a linguist and designer.

A keen skier, she was a member of a Danish women's air force unit as a princess, taking part in judo courses and endurance tests in the snow. Margrethe remained tough even as she grew older. In 2011, at age 70, she visited Danish troops in southern Afghanistan wearing a military jumpsuit.

As monarch, she crisscrossed the country and regularly visited Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, the two semi-independent territories which are part of the Danish Realm, and was met everywhere by cheering crowds.

Ryan Fahey