Tuesday, January 24, 2012

How Much Will the Newborn Cost the Danes?



This is the question Jyllands Posten asks in this article. Included in this link is a video of Prime Minster Helle Thorning-Schmidt congratulating the royal family.

If being an adorable young woman is the key to la petite prinsesse having a balanced, successful future in Denmark, then NO PROBLEM. Beautiful, tri-lingual at a minimum, regal like Papa and charming like Maman are no doubt going to be her calling card characteristics.

Danes will not pay more for the royal family because of the new princess, but they should perhaps get used to a new royal family.

The new little princess is perhaps favored by being a royal, but she will not be attached to financial law as her older cousin, Prince Christian, probably will one day.

Today it is only the queen, who is entitled to a government allowance set by Parliament. The other members of the royal family can only score an Annual Allowance, if granted by Parliament.

And currently it is "only" Prince Joachim and his former wife, Countess Alexandra, Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Benedikte, who receive that special support.

What does it cost us?

The royal couple and the Crown Princely couple get nearly 88 million in a so-called Annual Allowance from the Finance Ministry, while Prince Joachim gets about 3.5 million, which he shares with his wife and now four children. Princess Benedikte get around DKK 800,000.

But even though the Danish people not to notice the new royal addition to the purse, the growing number of royal children still have a meaning.

Historian and lecturer Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen from the University of Copenhagen, has worked with the Royal Family for many years.

He believes that the future will offer up a number of Danish celebrity princesses and princes.

The long range heralds change

"This is because the number of heirs by now is so long that the Crown must begin to consider what roles the many royal children will fill in the future," says Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen.

Back in the Middle Ages, the royal children either married off or were assigned to bishoprics, from which they could support the monarchy, and in the late twentieth century the nobility dominated the political landscape, and they also disputed the important military posts, he says.

But today there is another reality, and royal power is without any political influence. Therefore, a princess far down the line is actually seen outside of any influence and may have other options.

"But at the same time, interest in the royals of course increased significantly in the last 10 and 20 years, slowly and gradually. There will always be some who are watching her," says the lecturer.

Personal qualities are the way forward

It will become, in other words, difficult for the princess to disappear into oblivion, and perhaps to also work her way up the ranks of princes and princesses.

"Princes have always been known, but in the modern celebrity-way, personal backgrounds and media attraction mean a lot. Royal ancestral status may be used less and they should in the future have to do something based on their personality," says Sebastian Olden- Jorgensen.

So if the little royal girl can figure out how to succeed on the Danish scene and serve as a celebrity, it might lead her up in the ranks - not in order of succession, but as Denmark's princess darling number one, assesses Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen.

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