Trine Villemann has posted a new blog entry on the Politiken site. She writes about how Mary will be present as the latest probable recipient of a Danish passport gets married. The topic is inspired by the upcoming "Princess of Greece and Denmark" Miss Tatiana Blatnik, who on August 25th will take on that title by marrying Prince Nikolaos, second son of former Greek Queen and Danish princess by birth, Anne-Marie. The question becomes, will Miss Blatnik, by marrying the holder of a Danish diplomatic passport become the holder of one herself?
The Frederik and Mary summer 2010 has ahead of it threatening tasks such as Fashion Week, tennis games, the Navy's 500th anniversary - and a private wedding in Greece.
It is the latest event which is interesting to see through Danish taxpayer eyes. On August 25, our future queen will be present when Frederik's cousin, Nikolaos, marries his English fiancée Tatiana Blatnik. Nikolaos is the son of Greece's former King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie (Margrethe's younger sister.)
The wedding on the island of Spetses a few hours' sail from Athens has no constitutional significance. Greece has been a republic since 1974, and Constantine and Anne-Marie are considered at the Hellenic latitudes as ordinary tourists.
The happy family event has nevertheless a very Danish facet because I would bet an olive tree in that after the wedding will be issued Danish diplomatic passports to the English bride so that she, like sister-in-law Marie-Chantal (American father, mother from Ecuador), who is married to Pavlos, Anne-Marie's oldest son, can travel the world on our passports without being able to speak our language without living in Denmark and without ever having lifted so much as a painted finger for our country.
It starts to sound mighty nationalist, but this absurd tradition of issuing Danish passports - even the finest of its kind - to aliens without requiring them to meet the same criteria we require all other passport-seekers, is rooted in an ancient import of Danish royal dynamite to a time of Balkan stormy restlessness.
Constantine and his children are princes and princesses of Denmark. They descend in a straight line from George I of Greece, who was the son of Denmark's Christian 9, and in 1863 was inserted by contemporary great powers, including Britain and Russia in an attempt to stabilize Europe's turbulent southeastern corner.
In other words, because Greece nearly 150 years ago grabbed one of our princes for their throne, whistles and various foreign jet setters around the world on our passports.
It should be unfairly mentioned that old George's female descendants do not enjoy the same privileges as their male family members. Pavlos' wife and five children have all Danish diplomatic passport, says the foreign ministry, but neither the Spanish architect Carlos Morales, who is married to Pavlos' older sister Alexia, or their children have obtained Danish diplomatic curtesy, because Alexia's husband did not become a Prince of Denmark, even if he married one of our princesses.
It's just the case for the Danish People's Party. People with a fig leaf of an alibi have bartered for one of our passports!
Or Unity? There must surely be equal accessibility to our passports - regardless of gender?
The Danish People's Party as we know it is not afraid of tightening the clause for preventing residents from having access to Danish privileges.
And Unity List has before been a champion when it came to providing equal rights to Danish princes.
I therefore welcome the forthcoming Parliament session where Pia and Joanna will go to the barricades to either close the loophole for the Royal Danish passport or make sure that the hole is large enough for all the princes and their children to take advantage of it.
Found on the Politiken comments page before deletion by "Jane Stephens":
ReplyDelete"Hi Trine! Must say, my sister Mary as your crown princess is dead set on getting all of us Donaldsons Danish passports. We're working on it with our solicitor Rob Roy Woadbod who believes this is a necessary step for our takeover of the Danish throne. He is quite convinced that Miss Pia K is a horrible little racist. (Mary says she smells funny.) You can't sit there and tell me that you'd rather have whingey, co-dependent Freddo as king over our right, rollicking Scottish clan as your leader and saviour? Our Mary has proven over and over how easy it is to overtake your little princeling Fred. He is powerless to overcome her! Anyway, Fred isn't going to the wedding in Greece - claims some business in Shanghai. Mary thinks he's got a girl or two there; she's investigating via her Potts Point connections. So, Mary will be alone at the wedding and of course is very nervous about being photographed next to the gorgeous bride, the rich beyond belief "Princess Pavlos" and the infinitely more suitable for Denmark Princess Marie and her kingly and gallant husband Joachim. Mary's normal mask of heavy theatre makeup will surely melt in the Greek summer sun, so she's working with funeral enbalmers on the best possible techniques for maintaining her "Tussaud's face" as we like to joke in the family. Believe me, Mary's freckles, pot marks, wrinkies and zits used to be on full and proud display when she lived back here in Oz. We're proud of our natural Highlands beauty in the family! But once your Freddie's black American Express card got into her hot little hands, missy started acting more royal than your Daisy! Trine, I hope you'll be invited to the wedding as a member of the press. Please be sure and ask Alexia and Carlos about their passports, because Mary told me about a moment in the recent series on Tino that there is a scene in his office in which he is signing a letter on Carlos' behalf to get a Danish passport. For the record, I think Anne Marie is divine."