Denmark turns a page in its history on Sunday when Queen Margrethe abdicates and her son becomes King Frederik X, with more than 100,000 Danes expected to turn out for the unprecedented event.
The hugely popular chain-smoking Queen Margrethe II, 83, will leave her residence at Copenhagen’s Amalienborg Palace shortly after 1:30 pm (1230 GMT) for a short carriage ride to Christiansborg Palace, the seat of government and parliament.
There, at a Council of State at 2:00 pm, she will sign a declaration of abdication ending her 52-year reign, only the second time a Danish sovereign has stepped down, the last one Erik III almost nine centuries ago in 1146.
Her 55-year-old son Frederik — who will also attend the Council of State along with his Australian-born wife Mary and their eldest child, 18-year-old Prince Christian — automatically becomes king and head of state upon Margrethe’s abdication.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will then proclaim him King Frederik X on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace.
“The balcony serves only this purpose,” joked historian Lars Hovbakke Sorensen in an interview with AFP.
“The last time, in 1972 (when Margrethe became queen after the death of her father), there were more than 10,000 people on the square below. We’re expecting more this time,” he said.
Police expect at least 10 times that in the streets of the capital.
“It’s impossible to say how many but I think there will be more than 100,000 people,” Copenhagen police official Peter Dahl told AFP, adding that police reinforcements had been called in from across the country.
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