Tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets of Copenhagen to celebrate the accession of Denmark’s new king, Frederik X, on Sunday, just two weeks after his mother, Queen Margrethe II, made the dramatic announcement that she would abdicate.
The country’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, presented the new king, bareheaded and wearing a dark uniform adorned with medals and golden epaulets, to the Danish people from a balcony of Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Palace, in a move seen as underlining Denmark’s democratic character.
Large crowds of people, many of them waving small Danish flags, lined the route as King Frederik made his way to the castle by car in a motorcade as bells rang out from a nearby church.
Before the public appearance, Margrethe formally passed the monarchy to King Frederik in a televised meeting, signing her abdication papers, and, handing them over to Ms. Frederiksen, saying simply, “There.”
Margrethe’s abdication was 52 years after the monarch succeeded her father in the same palace following his death. She had been the longest-serving monarch in Europe.
In a New Year’s speech, Queen Margrethe, 83, cited her age and health as factors in her decision to step down. At the same time, she announced that her son Frederik, 55, would succeed her.
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