2023-11-07 15:01:16
by Luigi Ippolito
Charles delivered the King’s Speech today, the first King’s Speech for more than seventy years. He read the text, written by the prime minister, trying to maintain an impersonal tone. But the themes he fought for all his life were contradicted in the words written by Sunak
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
LONDON – A speech through gritted teeth: King Charles delivered his first King’s Speech, the sovereign’s address to the assembled Parliament, and only heaven knows what was really going through his head. Because the words that the government put in his mouth clashed with everything he has fought for all his life.
It was a historic day in Westminster: the first King’s Speech for more than seventy years. In fact, it was 1950 when George VI spoke in Parliament for the last time: since then it has always been the Queen’s Speech. And even last year, when Elizabeth was now incapacitated and it was Charles who pronounced it on her behalf, the Crown placed on a pillow was there to remember the presence of the Sovereign.
Today that Crown is firmly on the head of Charles, who entered Westminster leading Queen Camilla by the hand, also a historical “first” that had not been seen for decades. As is known, the Discorso de Re is actually written by the prime minister and serves to illustrate the government’s legislative agenda for the new parliamentary session: the sovereign is only a “speaker”, required to be impartial and impassive.
Elizabeth had accustomed us to this, who over the years read those sheets with an always firm and equal voice, without ever betraying the slightest emotion, whether it was a Conservative or Labor government, the programs of Winston Churchill or Tony Blair. But if we never knew what she really thought about the late queen – and she never let her opinions leak out – on the contrary, Charles’ views are known to everyone: as Prince of Wales he spoke on every topic, from architecture to food genetically modified, to the point of sending letters to ministers to try to influence them.
However, the issue that is dearest to him, as we know, is the environment: but a key passage in Rishi Sunak’s programme, which the king was forced to read, was the green light for new gas and oil drilling in the sea of the North, something that Carlo has always opposed. All eyes were on the sovereign, to see if with a grimace, a raise of an eyebrow, a studied pause, he would betray his thoughts: and when he read the passage on energy policy, he glanced towards Lords and deputies who it could also appear veiled in skepticism.
Throughout the speech, Carlo clearly made an effort to sound as impersonal as possible: but in his tone you could sense the fatigue of someone who has to play a part he doesn’t really believe in. A tic in his shoulders would underline certain passages, while at other times his voice sounded as if it were veiled by a sigh.
Yet the task was completed, because this is the strength of the British constitutional monarchy: the king is the pinnacle of the institutional edifice, the Crown is part of the legislative process, together with the Commons and the Lords, but at the same time not he interferes with politics, he doesn’t take the field. It is “the Crown in Parliament”, an indissoluble combination. And Charles, when he ascended to the throne last year, I immediately solemnly promised to “respect the constitutional principles”. In whose name, who knows how many more toads he will have to swallow.
November 7, 2023 (changed November 7, 2023 | 2:03 pm)
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