Monarchy in Denmark

History and Power

Denmark has been a constitutional monarchy since 1849. While the ruling monarch does still have power within the Danish government, that power is limited and the king or queen is mostly a ceremonial position. During the election process of the Prime Minister, the monarch has the constitutional authority to “choose or dismiss” the Prime Minister. In all actuality, the Monarch acts as a mediator if the incumbent Prime Minister is without majority lead; if so, a “Queen’s meeting” is held in which the chairmen of the Danish political parties and the ruling monarch decide who the next Prime Minister will be.

Once a decision is made, whether it be the election of officials or the signing of a law, the monarch must “approve” the decision. Though the monarch does still sign the decisions, the act is now more a formality. The Queen is not the actual “head of the government” as is defined in the constitution.

The main duty of the Queen, or any ruling monarch in Denmark, is to act as a unifying symbol for the Danish people, and to represent Denmark abroad. Since monarchs are unelected officials, they withhold their political views from the public in order not to sway the public with their bias. The current queen, Queen Margrethe II, does not vote at all in order to appear completely neutral.

Queen Margrethe II

The current monarch in Denmark is Queen Margrethe II, who has reigned over Denmark since 1972. She is the first female monarch in Denmark since Margaret I, who ruled during the Kalmar Union from 1388 to 1412. Margrethe was not supposed to be the Queen. When she was born, in the early 1940s, females were not legally allowed to rule. She had no brothers and it was assumed that her uncle would become King after her father, King Frederik IX, had died. Before he died, though, a new “Act of Succession” was passed into law that repealed the law put on the books in the 1850s and allowed for women to rule. King Frederik IX died on the 14^th of January in 1972 and Queen Margrethe II was sworn in with her own motto: “God’s help, the love of The People, Denmark’s strength.”

In 1967, the Queen married a French diplomat, Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat. They have two children, Frederik Andre Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, and Prince Joachim Holger Waldemar Christian of Denmark, Count of Monpeza. Both sons are married and have four and three children, respectively.