Pressure from pro-royalists lawmakers and voters of conservative ruling New Democracy forced the Prime Minister to upgrade the funeral of Greece’s former King Constantine.
Despite the initial decisions for a funeral as a private person, no lie to state and government representation only by the culture Minister, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis had to “add water in his wine” as we say in Greece and make some concessions as it is elections year and he neither wants to disappoint his own people nor lose voters to nationalist Greek Solution party..
After all, it was former ND PM Antonis Samaras who sharply criticized on Thursday the fact that the deposed king will be buried as a private person, Constantine Glucksburg, and not with the honors of a head of state. One cannot delete the country’s history, the former PM said, among others, thus highlighting the magnitude of the ND’s internal party problem.
With the changes deposed king Constantine II will be buried with “honors of a state leader” that will not look as if they were such.
Next to Culture Minister Lina, Mendoni, vice president Panagiotis Pikrammenos will represent the government. The official justification for the institutional upgrade is the expected presence of several members of European royal families, media speak of some 20 people, at the funeral, as the deceased was related to them.
For example, both King Felipe VI of Spain and his wife Letizia and King Juan Carlos I in exile will be present, with Juan Carlos’ wife, Queen Mother Sofia, Constantine’s sister, is already in Athens.
For the lay to state, government sources reportedly claimed that the decision to actually put the body on lay pilgrimage for four hours was taken by the Glucksburg family in consultation with the Church.
New Democracy has not imposed any restrictions to its ministers and MPs who are free to decide whether they will attend the funeral or not.
• The funeral service for Greece’s former King Constantine will be held at 12 noon at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, on Monday, January 16.
• His body will lie in the adjacent chapel of Agios Eleftherios from 6. a.m. to 10 a.m and will be open to members of the public to pay their respects.
A total of 200 guests are reportedly to attend the funeral service at the Metropolis, invited by Constantine’s family.
• After the religious service at the Cathedral, the body of the former King will be transferred to the royal tombs in Tatoi.
What is clear is that PM Mitsotakis is trying to trying to tread on two boats. Initially, he wanted to address the centrist and center-right, the Karamanlis-front and the voters from Pasok, at the same time winking at the pro-royal right. Then he started directly looking towards the pro-royal right, which is a small part of the electorate, but will be influenced at the ballot box by this issue, while for the centrist voters the issue will not be a priority, the PM’s office reportedly estimates.
The handling during the funeral of such delicate matters as the flag with which the coffin of Constantine Glucksburg will be covered will also be of interest. The flag with the crown was abolished in 1974 and therefore if it appears on the coffin, should be removed by the Police.
At the end of the day, there are many so-called “Greek liberals”, who see the whole funeral issue in terms of… lifestyle, expect kings, queens, princess and princesses dressed in black at the Metropolis of Athens and maybe a photo opportunity or even a selfie with a mourning royal.
Can I ask this question please: HOW did a Greek-born Danish/German/Russian family come to be the Royal Family of Greece?
Perhaps way back they were so far ahead of the game that they decided if they “identified” as being Greek, then they would indeed be Greek! These days it seems that you can identify as a tzatziki and indeed become tzatziki.
you have to read ‘monarchy in GR’ – try wikipedia without garlic
Learn some history
It’s not hard to find out how this happened