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The Graphic Truth: The world's other royals
The UK is set to crown King Charles III on Saturday at Westminster Abbey. The Brits know how to draw eyes with all their pomp and circumstance – although the king himself is largely a figurehead.
Indeed, many of the world's other monarchies — whether absolute like Saudi Arabia or constitutional like Thailand — wield significantly more power than the British sovereign.
While more than three-quarters of the world's countries are republics, there are still 43 functioning monarchies today. Among them are the 16 Commonwealth nations, which have been under the rule of King Charles III since Queen Elizabeth II died last year.
In honor of King Charles III’s coronation, we take a look at the state of monarchies around the world.
Tony Blair: UK monarchy is "unifying" & "supported in British society"
Tony Blair has fond memories of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Speaking to Ian Bremmer on GZERO World, the former British PM recalls what it was like to meet her for the first time. His first impression: deep respect for her historical experience.
For Blair, the queen was pretty much the only constant feature of life in the UK throughout all the social changes the country has seen since she was crowned in the 1950s.
To those who view the monarchy as an outdated institution, the former British PM says: don't worry, it's safe.
- What is the Commonwealth? - GZERO Media ›
- Queen Elizabeth's death marks turning point for the UK - GZERO ... ›
- Remembering Queen Elizabeth II - GZERO Media ›
- The end of an era: Queen Elizabeth II dies - GZERO Media ›
- Liz Truss' unenviable new gig - GZERO Media ›
- Tony Blair on Liz Truss & a post-Brexit UK on the brink - GZERO Media ›
A PUPPET REGIME job opening: Queen Consort
With Camilla's popularity flagging, other world leaders make the case for why they should have her job as queen consort to the UK's King Charles III.
Watch more PUPPET REGIME!
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Remembering Queen Elizabeth II
Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving monarch in UK history and virtually in world history, is no longer with us. Queen Elizabeth has reigned under 15 prime ministers, starting with Churchill. And in this time, the United Kingdom went from global power and industrial powerhouse to a post-European middle power. She's lived through and reigned through the legacy of colonialism, the end of British Empire, and now of course the end of the UK in Europe. The death of the Queen and her succession will dominate the news, certainly across the UK and the Commonwealth for some time. It's going to overshadow the arrival of Liz Truss as prime minister and all of her major economic announcements.
There's a lot to say here. Queen Elizabeth has long been seen as the single most popular figure in Britain, and her death will undoubtedly be received with enormous sadness by a public that's been battered by two years of COVID crisis, on top of shambolic Brexit process, massive domestic political scandals, independence movements, particularly in Scotland. And on top of that, now an enormous cost of living crisis that's worse than any other G7 economy. So, it's not hit the UK at an opportune time at all. And the impact of her death really on the public mood should not be underestimated, given that the Queen has long been seen as a beacon of stability in the United Kingdom in an uncertain and very volatile world.
The prime minister and the leader of the opposition were told of the news of the Queen's failing health during exchanges in the Commons on this energy package that they're passing to try to take some of the weight of massive inflation off of the British public. And when the news spread, Westminster became unusually somber, with MPs talking of nothing else and speculating on the implications of her death. And I would say that the monarchy has remained popular in the UK largely because of the Queen and the extraordinary way that she has performed her duties.
Under the British Constitution, the Queen is Head of State, but without any critical role in government other than formally appointing her prime minister, which she had just done, and accepting their resignation, which she also just done, also giving her assent to pieces of legislation. But through the Privy Council, the monarch is kept informed of all government activities, but does not in any way influence them. So it's really a titular and a symbolic rule.
But as Head of State over 70 years, from Churchill now to Truss having served under her, Queen Elizabeth has remained utterly impartial. And I say that in particular because Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth's son and heir to the throne, has been far less cautious about allowing his opinions to reach the public's ear. And if the monarchy is to continue to succeed in the UK, he'll certainly need to exercise significantly greater restraint.
Affection for the Queen has been a critical factor in keeping the Commonwealth together and holding off calls in many countries for complete independence. And indeed, I would expect that Republican movements in countries with constitutional parliamentary monarchies will likely now grow. For example, in Australia, Republicanism is the official stance of the Labor Party. We'll see a lot more of that, I think, across the Commonwealth.
It's an odd thing for an American, this idea that you have a king or a queen with hereditary rule, however symbolic it is. And yes, it's certainly true that a lot of Brits complain about the lavish living of the royals and the scandals. But we should also be clear that the Queen and the monarchy are huge tourist attractions in Britain, and it's impossible to quantify the revenue that they've brought in from tourism. It certainly will have paid for much, if not well over, the cost of maintaining the monarchy.
But finally, Queen Elizabeth is loved across the world in an extraordinary and singular way. And in that regard, I just want to close by saying that we'll miss her.
What We're Watching: Thai youth rally against monarchy, Italian local polls
(Some) Thais fed up with royals: In their largest show of force to date, around 18,000 young Thai activists took to the streets of Bangkok on Saturday to rally against the government and demand sweeping changes to the country's powerful monarchy. The protesters installed a gold plaque declaring that Thailand belongs to the Thai people, not the king — a brazen act of defiance in a country where many view the sovereign as a god and offenses against the royal family are punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Activists also got the royal guards to accept a letter addressed to King Vajiralongkorn with their proposed reforms. We're watching to see if the Thai government — made up mostly of the same generals who took over in a 2014 coup and then stage-managed last year's election to stay in power — continues to exercise restraint against the activists. So far, some protest leaders have been detained but they are growing bolder in their defiance of the military and the royal family, the two institutions that have dominated Thai politics for decades. Prime Minister and former army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha is in a tough spot: many young and liberal Thais will hate him if he cracks down hard on the peaceful protesters, but not doing so would make him look weak in the eyes of his power base of older, more conservative Thais who still venerate the monarchy and are fine with the military calling the shots in politics.
A Tuscan takeover? Italians are currently voting in a series of regional elections seen as the first major electoral test since the pandemic hit. Voters have generally supported Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's handling of the crisis, but the center-left coalition he leads — the Democratic Party coupled with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement — has had trouble uniting behind candidates at the local level. The results will come later today, and we are watching mainly to see how far-right former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's Lega party does. Salvini has been out of the government since botching a bid to force fresh elections almost a year ago, but he has used the pandemic to amplify his anti-immigrant message and criticize the government's handling of the crisis. Although the party has lost some popularity at the national level, the Lega and its allies are already expected to win at least three of the seven regional leaderships up for a vote. And it has already won 8 out of 9 regional elections held since 2018. Keep a close eye in particular on Tuscany, where Salvini's party has already made strong local inroads in a region that has been run by the left for half a century.
Graphic truth: Watch the throne — monarchies around the world
Former Spanish King Juan Carlos I's decision to leave the country after being investigated for corruption has reignited the debate over the future of the monarchy in Spain. Opinions are divided between mostly older Spaniards who defend the institution's role as a symbol of national unity, and the younger generations and nationalist regions who want Spain to become a republic. More than three quarters of the world's countries are now republics, but 44 still have a king or queen as their head of state — among them the 16 Commonwealth countries officially ruled by British Queen Elizabeth II and 5 countries where the sovereign is all-powerful. We take a look at which countries remain monarchies today.
Young Thais take on the generals... and the King
Thousands of young people have taken to Thailand's streets in recent weeks to raise their voices against an increasingly unpopular government. Angry protests are a dime a dozen in the Land of Smiles, so why is this movement different?
First, the protestors are defying strict social-distancing rules under an ongoing nationwide state of emergency to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Second, they are facing off against the powerful Thai military, which seized power following a 2014 coup and rewrote the country's constitution to win a parliamentary majority following a carefully stage-managed election in 2019. The political dominance of the generals is now deeply entrenched.
Third, this youth movement is the first in a generation that has no ties to either the ultra-royalist, military-backed "yellow shirts" or the populist "red shirt" supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled former prime minister deposed by a previous coup in 2006.
But most importantly, these protestors are breaking a taboo that will horrify many older Thais by (indirectly) questioning the authority of the King. It's is a game-changer for Thai politics — an assault on an institution that has remained the only national symbol of continuity and stability since 1932.
For this movement, the only way to restore Thailand's democracy and bring transformative change is to oust the entire existing power structure.
These activists are staging their protests in new ways. They mobilize via social media to organize flash mobs. When security forces gather to oppose them, they flash a three-finger salute of youth resistance popularized by the Hunger Games book and movie franchise.
The protesters have three demands. First, they want to scrap the constitution that has allowed the generals to manipulate the electoral system, for instance by disbanding the progressive Future Forward Party for accepting a loan from its own founder to finance the 2019 campaign. Although the party finished third in the vote, it was then barred from entering an anti-military coalition government by a creative interpretation of electoral law and the intervention of the Senate (which is entirely appointed by the military).
Second, they want the resignation of Prayuth Chan-ocha, the 2014 coup leader who decided to stay on as prime minister. And third, the military must stop going after peaceful pro-democracy activists, one of whom recently turned up dead in Cambodia.
The movement is also focused on the future of young people in Thailand, where the economy is expected to shrink by more than 8 percent this year due to the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry.
Warnings that they have nothing to lose have even emboldened the protestors to target the (until now untouchable) monarchy. At rallies, demonstrators have waved signs calling to "abolish 112," the section in the Thai criminal code that punishes with 3 to 15 years behind bars any offense to the royal family. It's a painful indictment of King Vajiralongkorn… only four years after he succeeded his father, the much more widely revered King Adulyadej.
The former monarch was loved by most Thais, in part because he sometimes intervened in times of political unrest to ease tensions. The new King's unpopularity, heightened by news that he spent the coronavirus lockdown at a luxury resort in Germany, leaves him deeply dependent on the military (which explains why he forbade his own sister, Princess Ubolratana, from running for prime minister against Prayuth in 2019).
Change is not on the horizon. Not yet, at least. The military and monarch have more than enough muscle to beat back protests. But the willingness of members of this movement to cross lines that have never been crossed before signals a generational transition that could upend Thailand's power structure in years to come.