Queen Elizabeth II’s monarchy is losing support in the 70th year of her reign as more than a quarter of Brits now want to abolish the royals.
Anti-monarchy campaign group Republic warned of “a huge problem for the royals” as research that the organization commissioned from pollster YouGov showed a decline in support.
Historically, the monarchy has enjoyed overwhelming public approval in Britain. But data collected between April 30 and May 2 showed a rise in the number of those who place democracy above tradition.
The research suggested 27 percent wanted to abolish the monarchy compared with 60 percent in favor of keeping it.
While supporters of the Crown are still comfortably in the majority across the population as a whole, among young people the picture looks very different.
Within the 18- to 24-year-old age range, 40 percent wanted to abolish the monarchy compared to 37 percent who supported continuing with it.
Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, said in a statement released to Newsweek: “When looked at alongside other polls in recent years, it appears support for the monarchy is on a slow puncture.
“Just 10 years ago monarchists were consistently boasting that three-quarters of the population supported the royals. Now support stands at just 60 percent.”
Signs support might be ebbing slowly away emerged in the aftermath of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, when a YouGov poll found 22 percent of Brits favored an elected head of state.
However, individual senior royals appeared at the time to maintain or even advance in opinion polls while Meghan and Harry’s U.K. approval ratings crashed.
It is therefore striking that more than a year later the trend away from supporting the Monarchy appears to have continued.
Smith argued the problem could get worse for the family after the end of the queen’s reign, when Prince Charles becomes king.
He said: “The queen is the monarchy, the monarchy is the queen and it’s the queen who continues to sustain support for the monarchy.
“That’s a huge problem for the royals, because at some point in the next few years she will no longer be there to keep the show going.
“As we approach the Jubilee, it’s time the country started to have a serious debate about the monarchy, what it’s for, what it represents, and what democratic alternatives are on offer.
“I am confident that sooner than most people might expect, a majority of people in this country will want the monarchy gone.”
It comes after analysis by Newsweek showed Prince William has lost support within Gen Z in Britain, though the trend has been masked by his strong support among older people.
Beyond Meghan and Harry’s bombshell accusation to Winfrey last year, the royals have experienced two back-to-back car crash tours of the Caribbean.
Prince William and Kate Middleton were in March told face-to-face of Jamaica’s desire to remove the queen as head of state, during a visit that was intended to celebrate her reign.
Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, also appeared awkward as they experienced a similar treatment in Antigua and Barbuda.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the couple his country would one day break with the monarchy. But in the meantime, he hoped the couple would build bridges to achieve reparations for slavery.
Edward appeared to laugh as he responded that he could “not going to give him a complete response” as he was not keeping notes, and did not address the question of slavery.
Clive Irving, author of The Last Queen, recently told Newsweek the end of the queen’s reign could cause problems for the royals among countries around the world that count Elizabeth as head of state.
He said: “I think it is the beginning of a domino process. When the queen’s reign ends they all go off the precipice, I think. They just drive off a precipice because it’s only the presence of the queen.”
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Original Article: Queen Has ‘Huge Problem’ as Support for Abolishing Monarchy Rises (newsweek.com)
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