🇳🇴 Europe’s eldest king turns 88 this week, but why do we view aging monarchs differently to aging presidents?

Plus how recent scandals in the royal family are affecting support for Norway’s monarchy and King Harald V

All in the latest It’s Reigning Men: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

But that’s not the only scandal to hit the Luxembourg monarchy during Grand Duke Henri’s reign

To find out more listen and subscribe to my podcast It’s Reigning Men now, with another episode coming this weekend

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In both the Belgian and Dutch cases a solution was found

But in Luxembourg the Grand Duke’s refusal to sign the bill was causing a constitutional crisis and officials were concerned he could try to prevent future laws

So, they changed the constitution to strip him of that power

🇳🇱 Shortly after the end of World War II, The Netherlands had a “conscientious objector” of its own with its monarch at the time

Queen Juliana in 1951 and 1952 refused to sign the death warrants of four Nazis known as the Breda Four

Instead they were sentenced to life in prison

The work around?

King Baudouin of the Belgians asked the government to declare him unfit to rule for 24 hours

The constitution stated if the king was unfit to rule the government assumed the role of head of state

So, for one day Belgium had no monarch and the bill was signed

🇧🇪 There was precedent for this in neighbouring Belgium where officials there had found a way around the then King Baudouin’s refusal to sign a bill legalising abortion in 1990

Again the monarch claimed his catholic faith prevented him from approving the legislation

Henri, a devout Catholic, said he couldn’t sign the bill because of “reasons of conscience”

Officials were blindsided by his decision because the democratically elected parliament had voted to legalise euthanasia, and had wrongly assumed the monarch would sanction the law

🇱🇺 This is Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg - who’s stepping down later this year

Eight years into his reign, in 2008, he caused a constitutional crisis when he tried to use his ‘veto power’ to stop a euthanasia bill

Henri’s approval and signature was needed for it to become law

Another episode of It’s Reigning Men out now

🇸🇪 This time it’s all about Europe’s longest-reigning monarch: Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf

Stripped of all political power, has he maintained the monarchy’s relevancy?

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Interested in modern monarchy?

The first episode of It’s Reigning Men is out now!

The brand new podcast series all about modern monarchs is out now: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

This week we're in Denmark hearing about the beginnings of a scandal, how the new king "upset" businesses in 2024 after a “shaky start”, and how far he can go with Donald Trump over Greenland

More than 40 countries in the world still have a monarchy

None of those monarchs are women

With this new series - It’s Reigning Men - I’ll explore who these men are born into palaces and privilege

First ep out Sunday - pls subscribe wherever you listen to pods: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...