It’s Charles’s birthday: King who divides Germany worries he’s being followed at COP27 – complaint to Egypt

The leaves are falling from the trees, it is getting colder and grayer. For the first time in more than 70 years, the British head of state has stopped celebrating his birthday as the weather slowly improves, as birds chirp and leaves sprout. The Queen had her day of honor on April 21, along with King Charles III. is it november 14?

He will be 74 this year and will celebrate his first birthday as monarch. More than two months have passed since he took the throne. How’s Karl?

Catherine Mayer, who received the Royal for her biography Charles III. – With the heart of a king” for a long time, t-online judges as follows: “Many people like him, he is successful, that speaks for him. Most people in Britain still support the monarchy.” Not all, of course – as revealed only this week, when Charles was nearly crushed during a visit to the city of York. Still, “Many see the monarchy as a source of stability, especially with this insane populist government. As a result, Charles enjoys a surprising amount of goodwill. He also enjoys goodwill because people loved his mother and see him as a son in mourning.” He must keep this benevolence. Which will certainly not be easy.

“People see how well they fit together”

After more than 70 years on hold, Charles is no longer Prince of Wales but King since the death of his mother on September 8, 2022. By his side he has his wife Camilla, who is now the queen at the request of Queen Elizabeth II. formal title Queen Consort, or Queen’s Queen. The monarch has married her for the second time since 2005 – Catherine Mayer thinks he is lucky: “People love Camilla very much. It has long been seen as an inconvenience to him and a discredit to him – because of the circumstances of this long and complicated love story.” This is remembered in many places, not least through the Netflix series “The Crown”, which it is again in the current season, with fictitious elements that are not identified.

It’s the story Princess Diana once said in the BBC Panorama interview: “There were three of us in this wedding. So it was a bit busy.” Charles had been involved with Camilla when he was married to Diana and had been in a relationship with her since the 1970s. That’s why Camilla initially polarized and was even nicknamed “Rottweiler”. But that has changed: “Now people see how well they fit together, that she is a happy person.”

As lucky as the king is because of Camilla, he is also unlucky, as Mayer explains: “Charles had a lot of bad luck and partly caused it himself. It is difficult for him to follow his mother because she did a great job. She kept her opinion to herself, people could project onto her whatever they wanted to see. She was a connecting figure.” Not for everyone, she emphasizes. But for more people than their heir apparent. The Queen had a poker face, seemed distant, but was a constant for many Britons. After all, she had been on the throne for seven decades.

And Charles, he’s been able to do other things in those seven decades and is hardly seen as neutral. Mayer explains, “Charles has long been divisive because he is an activist.” But he also couldn’t have made it right for the people if he hadn’t done anything. Then people would have complained that he was receiving public funds and twirling his thumbs, Mayer says.

Instead, Charles has been committed to promoting environmental awareness since the 1970s. This decades-long struggle for sustainability is making it political, especially now that it contradicts the actions of the British government. During her short term in office, former Prime Minister Liz Truss even banned the king from traveling to the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Egypt. It distributed new licenses for oil and gas extraction. Her successor, Rishi Sunak, changed the UK’s climate course again. Charles, however, stayed away from the conference.

‘It will be even harder for him’

Not the only problem with his commitment to the climate and people: «He has founded many charities and initiatives to improve the world. He needed a lot of money for that,” Mayer explains. This put him in a precarious situation. Because “he was very ruthless in the way he compromised”. A few months ago, the “Sunday Times” revealed the payment of a $1 million donation in a suitcase of money from Qatar for one of its organizations. The palace confirmed the incident. Charles had made the wrong choice, albeit not illegally. But Mayer is sure more unpleasant stories about him will come out: “It’s hard for him and I think it will be even harder for him. Any scandal eats away at his impression of grandeur.”

Mayer does not see the monarchy in Britain in imminent danger. That’s only the case “when people worry too much about the fact that it exists at all”. For example, when Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry the divorced American Wallis Simpson. “It got people thinking about how crazy the idea of ​​a monarchy is, the idea that someone is born with the claim to have dominion over other people,” Mayer said. It sounds contradictory, but the monarchy exists “partly because of its popularity, but also partly because of a lack of popularity”.

In any case, there is a lot that contributes to the lack of popularity. Also related to Charles’ brother Andrew, who is implicated in an abuse scandal: “The royals housed Prince Andrew for a long time, even though they knew about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein,” Mayer said. Not to mention the family conflict with his youngest son Prince Harry and his wife Duchess Meghan, who have turned their backs on the royal family and moved to the United States. “The situation was handled poorly by the Royals.” Harry’s biography will be out in January 2023 and will undoubtedly polarize. The beginning of the year is probably freezing cold.