Two anti-monarchist protesters booed King Charles II’s convoy on Monday during his visit to the British Parliament while carrying a banner with the slogan “He is not my king”, a rare image in this period of mourning for the death of Elizabeth II.
The two protesters, each carrying a sheet of paper with the slogans “Not my king”, “Abolition of the monarchy” and “Down with feudalism”, stood on the sidewalk in front of the Palace of Westminster, seat of the British Parliament .
A female protester then approached the gates of Parliament, before police officers pulled her away, according to footage released by the Evening Standard newspaper.
“It’s a political place and it’s a political day,” the woman explained to AFP, without wanting to reveal her identity. “Parliament welcomed Carlos Windsor as the new head of state in this country without the people having been able to pronounce themselves (…) It is not fair,” he defended.
“We don’t know what he does, but he earns a salary of 24 million pounds ($28 million) a year,” he said. “Why? For greeting and shaking hands,” he added.
The death of Elizabeth II, a figure of unity and stability during her 70-year reign, aroused immense emotion in the United Kingdom, where hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather in the coming days before her coffin in London.
Some dissenting voices, however, denounced the colonialist heritage of the British monarchy.
According to a survey published on the occasion of the queen’s Platinum Jubilee by the YouGov institute, 62% of Britons want the country to remain a monarchy, compared to 22% who advocate choosing the head of state.
Support for the monarchy is weaker among the young, and Carlos III is less popular than his mother.
Before the arrival of Elizabeth II’s coffin in Edinburgh on Sunday, Scottish police arrested a woman carrying a banner with the slogan “Abolish the monarchy” for disorderly conduct.
Where does the wealth of Britain’s royal family come from?
The Royal Firm, Monarchy Holdings PCL or simply the business of the royal family is a conglomerate of properties owned by the family that makes up the royalty in the United Kingdom. It is estimated that the value of these companies amounts to more than 28,000 million dollars (560,000 million pesos).
Another income of the royal family is the Crown Estate, one of the largest real estate corporations in Europe. To his credit are urban properties in central London, but also coastlines, forests and farmland in the UK. It belongs to the king in turn, but its income is not his private property. Every year, the income it generates is given to the British government, as the Crown Estate was created to cover the costs of the government.
However, 25% of these profits are given back to the royal family, as a sovereign grant. In the fiscal year 2018-2019, this proportion represented almost 86 million pounds sterling for the family now under the command of Carlos III.
Isabel II, in addition, would have left a fortune in inheritance of 500 million euros.
With information from AFP.
