Margrethe II of Denmark announced on Sunday her abdication in favor of her eldest son who should ascend the throne on January 14.
After 52 years of reign, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark will abdicate on January 14. This is what the sovereign announced on Sunday during her New Year’s greetings.
Aged 83 and widowed since 2018, Margrethe II had undergone major surgery which prevented her from appearing in public until April.
His eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, aged 55, will succeed him.
Margrethe II ascended the throne in 1972 after the death of her father Frederick IX.
Queen without power, but popular, the sovereign became last year the last monarch still in office after the death of her cousin Elizabeth of England.
“Queen Margrethe is the very embodiment of Denmark and, over the years, she has put into words and feelings what we are as a people and as a nation,” responded Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a press release.