2023-05-03 22:20:57
Next Saturday a thousand people are expected to gather in a corner of Trafalgar Square a few steps from the statue of Charles I, the king executed in 1649 after facing Parliament and being convicted of “tyrant, traitor, murderer and enemy.” from town”. His death gave rise to the country’s only troubled republic, between 1649 and 1660.
Those who flock to that corner of London are called to protest various republican movements, which are trying to win supporters by taking advantage of the new monarch’s relative unpopularity and outrage over the taxpayer’s spending on the coronation while the country is marred by an economic crisis. that has cut public services and has impoverished the majority of citizens.
Those who take out their posters and yellow T-shirts with the motto “Not my king” (“He is not my king”) will be a minority on Saturday, while hundreds of thousands will celebrate the coronation of Carlos III in hours of parades and religious ceremonies with various scepters and the crown of solid gold and hundreds of precious stones that Carlos II made himself. in 1661.
“The coronation is a very, very expensive exercise in which the monarchy tries to remain visible. They assume it’s good for them for the glamor and showmanship aspect. At the same time, the coronation draws attention to the monarchy, which is increasingly difficult to justify,” Ken Richie, a political scientist and former Labor councilor who will protest this Saturday as a member of Labor for a Republic, a campaign that defends the republic and tries to convince the Labor Party to at least hold the monarchy accountable for its spending and its privileges that allow it to be above the law.
Although street protests are limited, support for the republic is growing in the country. The attitude of at least half of the population moves between disinterest and indignation at the coronation, an expense that other monarchies no longer do and that is not legally necessary because Carlos III was already proclaimed king after the death of his mother, in September 2022.
Festive moments often increase support for the monarchy, but in this case half of Britons say they are unlikely or not at all likely to see or participate in the festivities, especially those under 49 and Labour-leaning, according to a YouGov pollster poll from April. 51% of the population affirms that the State should not pay for the coronation and only 32% support that it do so, according to another YouGov survey. Despite the fact that Carlos III receives 100 million euros of basic annual allowance, without counting security expenses or decoration of palaces, the State will be in charge of putting extra money this year for three days of coronation festivities, whose bill is not public. . Security costs for Elizabeth II’s funeral, which lasted 11 days, exceeded 75 million pounds (more than 84 million euros), according to information obtained from police and firefighters through official requests by National Worlda chain of regional newspapers.
I support the king down
In the United Kingdom, support for the monarchy has been declining since the 1990s and, although it had recovered somewhat during the pandemic due to affection for Elizabeth II, the arrival of Carlos and Camila has accelerated that trend. The percentage of people who consider the monarchy “very important”, 29%, is at its lowest level in the 40 years that the national center for statistics has asked about it in its survey of social attitudes of the British, according to the latest data just published. For decades, there were hardly any surveys on the monarchy and when this question about the relevance of the crown was asked for the first time in 1983, 86% answered that it was “important” or “very important”. Now 55% say so, while 45% think that the monarchy is not important or wants to abolish it.
“The majority of the public still supports the royal family, and since that support tends to be higher among those over 55, the challenge now for the monarchy is to be relevant and attractive to a younger generation,” says Guy Goodwin, the head of the statistical center responsible for the survey (NatCen, in its abbreviation in English). Only 12% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 consider that the monarchy is “very important” compared to 42% of the group aged 55 and over.
The polls are all going in the same direction. This April, a YouGov poll for the BBC asked Britons whether the country should have a monarchy “in the future” or should be replaced by an elected head of state: 58% supported the monarchy, 26% the republic and 16% answered “I don’t know”. The percentage of Republicans is higher among Labor voters, who supported staying in the EU in the 2016 referendum, men and those under 35 years of age.
“When Elizabeth II’s coronation took place 70 years ago, the monarchy seemed to be on solid foundations in a country still recovering from war. King Charles, by contrast, inherits an institution that, while still widely popular, now has a more difficult task of justifying itself in the eyes of the public,” writes John Curtice, a professor and polling expert, in a just-published report. about the monarchy of think-tank UK in a Changing Europe.
Growing doubts about the institution portend trouble for Carlos and Camila, who have always been among the most unpopular figures, despite the dedication of tabloids and conservative newspapers to finding other villains within the royal family. Between 30 and 40% of those surveyed tend to have a negative opinion of the couple despite the improvement in their image since the accession to the throne. 45% say that Carlos is “disconnected” from the experience of the British public and 19% are not sure.
“The queen was much harder to attack. She played her cards very well. Of course, she also did outrageous things, but she was very diplomatic, ”says Richie, the Republican activist. “Instead, now we have the troubles between Princes William and Harry… And all the scandals surrounding Carlos and his foundation,” he explains.
Few criticisms in Parliament
Despite the evolution of public opinion, Parliament hardly questions even the most controversial accounts of the monarchy. Since the Conservatives have ruled, the crown has made more money than ever with less scrutiny. But even Labor MPs seem disinterested in holding the king to account.
There are few exceptions, like from Labor MP Richard Burgon, who asked a few days ago that the billionaire Charles III be responsible for the coronation bill and not the State in a country where the Bank of England’s chief economist says that British households have to “accept that they are poorer” due to the impact of the crisis (greater than in the rest of the world’s large economies).
“This is a case where public opinion is more likely to have to lead politicians than politicians leading public opinion,” says Richie, who understands that Labor politicians don’t dare campaign so explicit about a constitutional change when there is still a majority in favor of the monarchy and they want to win elections by focusing on denouncing cuts in healthcare or the cost of living.
But he hopes Labor MPs will at least argue that the king is no longer above the law so that laws on the right to information, employment discrimination, transparency and taxation apply to the monarchy. Its practical objective is for the monarchy to have a more limited role and, for example, to eliminate the weekly meetings that the king has with the prime minister.
“The monarch should have nothing to do with the way the country is run. If we make sure that the monarchy has a more limited influence, a more limited budget, then little by little we can dismantle the monarchy, rather than abolish it. If she becomes irrelevant, then it’s going to be easier to replace her with an elected head of state. I don’t think Britain dares to remove monarchs the way other countries have, it’s going to be a much more gradual process,” Richie said. “The Windsors were a family that once had an important role in the country, but no longer. They can dedicate themselves to doing popular festivals or charitable work ”, he assures.
the restless republic
The interest in republicanism is apparent in the number of public debates on the issue – also on the BBC, often accused of being unbalanced in its support for the monarchy – and in popular books on the republican period.
One of the books with the most echo in newspapers and bookstores is The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown (“The Restless Republic: Britain Uncrowned”) by historian Anna Keay, which traces a human Time.news of the republican period between 1649 and 1660 and its impact. The book portrays the violence, chaos and autocracy of Oliver Cromwell, but also vindicates the revolution in the arts, the press and the institutions that left the republic and that only now has been studied in detail.
“The legacy that has not resisted is the republic itself, but much of what resided under that constitutional arrangement has undoubtedly endured,” Keay told elDiario.es. “It was the moment when the idea that Parliament was the essential foundation of sovereignty was first put forth and this has been the foundation of our state for 300 years,” he says.
The historian also points out that this was in fact the origin of the territory as a political reality linked to the first Parliament that represented England, Wales, Scotland and then also Ireland. They were turbulent, violent years and also of creativity in the midst of the explosion of the press and a certain amount of freedom. “The idea of the popular press and newspapers started at that time… We can add modern science, the creation of a standing army, the translation of laws into English, coffeehouses and the tradition of drinking tea,” says Keay. .
The monarchy also changed upon its return to power and it was, in part, as a result of those years that the historian defines as “restless” because “the leaders did not achieve a State formula without the monarchy” and, “after ten years trying to five different ones, none of them lasted because none of them had enough support from enough people,” concludes Keay.
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