Profile
Crown Prince Frederik: the former party prince
who will be Denmark’s next king
As his mother, Margrethe, abdicates after 52 years as
queen, Frederik looks ready to extend her style of relaxed, liberal sovereignty
Agence
France-Presse in Copenhagen
Sun 31 Dec
2023 22.09 GMT
A
rebellious teen turned climate-conscious family man, Denmark’s future king is
the embodiment of the country’s relaxed, liberal monarchy.
Passionate
about the environment, Crown Prince Frederik has discreetly imposed himself in
the shadow of his hugely popular mother, Queen Margrethe II, championing
Denmark and its drive to find solutions to the climate crisis.
“When the
time comes, I will guide the ship,” he said in a speech celebrating his
mother’s half-century on the throne in 2022.
“I will
follow you, as you followed your father” in leading the 1,000-year-old
institution, Prince Frederik added. And after his mother’s shock announcement
on New Year’s Eve that she intends to abdicate in early 2024, he will soon get
his chance.
But this
measured assurance is a far cry from his younger self.
“He was not
strictly speaking a rebel, but as a child and young man, he was very
uncomfortable with the media attention and the knowledge that he was going to
be king,” said Gitte Redder, an expert on the Danish royal family.
He only
“gained confidence in his mid-20s”, she told AFP.
Frederik
resented his parents for neglecting him as they fulfilled their royal
obligations. He sought solace in fast cars and fast living, and was considered
a spoiled party prince in the early 1990s.
But that
view began to change after he graduated from Aarhus University in 1995, the
first Danish royal to complete a university education. His time at college
included a stint at Harvard in the US, where he was enrolled under the
pseudonym Frederik Henriksen.
The fake
surname was a nod to his father, the French diplomat Henri de Monpezat who
became Prince Consort Henrik when he married Margrethe.
But
Frederik – who speaks English, French and German – really began to mature into
his role during his time training in the three branches of Denmark’s military.
The prince
served in the navy’s Frogman Corps – where he was nicknamed “Pingo” (Penguin) –
one of only four of the 300 recruits to pass all of the tests in 1995.
In 2000, he
took part in a four-month, 3,500km (2,175-mile) ski expedition across
Greenland.
His
daredevil side has landed him in hospital after sledging and scooter accidents,
but his popularity has soared, boosted by the Royal Run, annual fun runs across
Denmark he began in 2018.
“He is a
sportsman, he attends concerts and football matches, which makes him even more
accessible than his mother,” royal expert Redder said.
“I don’t
want to lock myself in a fortress. I want to be myself, a human being,” he once
said, insisting he would stick to that even after taking the throne.
He met his
wife, Mary Donaldson, an Australian lawyer, in a Sydney bar during the 2000
Olympic Games. They have tried to give their four children as normal an
upbringing as possible, sending them mainly to state schools.
The couple,
said historian Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen, are “modern, woke, lovers of pop
music, modern art and sports”. They “do not represent a potential revolution
compared with the queen”, but a careful transition adapting to the times, he
said.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário