Protesters Are Demanding An Elected Head Of State, Say The Royal Family Has No Place In A Modern Constitutional Democracy And Is Staggeringly Expensive To Maintain.
LONDON — Just a mile away from London’s Westminster Abbey where King Charles III is preparing to be crowned, thousands of his subjects protested against the monarchy — and at least seven people were detained by police.
“A significant police operation is underway in central London,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement Saturday. “The individuals have been held on suspicion of breaching the peace.”
Among those reportedly detained was Graham Smith, leader of the anti-monarchy group Republic, during protests at London’s Trafalgar Square. London’s Metropolitan Police would not confirm his detention but images on Twitter showed Smith being led to a police van. Ahead of his detention Smith told The Washington Post in an interview that for many Britons, Queen Elizabeth II “was the monarchy and the monarchy was the queen.” But Charles, he added, “hasn’t inherited any of that” — and his accession to the throne could mark a turning point for the anti-monarchy movement.
“Things are changing already,” Smith said. “People are no longer worried about criticizing, challenging and speaking up about being a republican.”
King Charles has faced many protesters at his public engagements. Hecklers disrupted public events organized for the proclamation of his accession to the throne and last year he had eggs thrown at him not once but twice, in York and in Luton. Polls show king Charles is less popular than this mother or even his sister, Princess Anne, his eldest son, Prince William, or daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales. His wife Camilla is even less popular — many Britons blame her for breaking up Charles’s previous marriage with the widely beloved Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997
