Click to copy

Denmark’s queen dampens jubilee celebrations

September 9, 2022 GMT

FILE - Denmark's Queen Margrethe attends the Danish Parliament's celebration of her 50th Regent's Anniversary at Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen, Friday Jan. 14, 2022. Celebrations marking Denmark’s popular Queen Margrethe’s 50 years on the throne of Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy will be altered due to Thursday's death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. The palace could not immediately on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022 provide details of the changes for the jubilee events. The reign of Margrethe is now Europe’s longest. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s Queen Margrethe dampened celebrations to mark her 50 years on the throne of Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the Danish royal palace said Friday.

Queen Margrethe, 82, whose reign is now Europe’s longest, has praised Britain’s late monarch as “a towering figure among European monarchs and a great inspiration to us all” and that “We shall miss her terribly.”

Flags on the Danish royal palace in Copenhagen were lowered at half-staff on Friday.

Palace press spokeswoman Lene Balleby said the changes to the celebrations program were made on “the wish of the (Danish) queen.”

Two events scheduled for Saturday — an appearance by Margrethe on the Amalienborg Palace balcony to greet throngs of well-wishers as well as a ride through the capital in a horse-drawn carriage — have been canceled.

A luncheon at the Copenhagen City Hall has been postponed, while events including a performance at the Royal Theatre’s Old Stage, a religious service and a Sunday evening banquet will be scaled down.

Margrethe was proclaimed queen on Jan. 15, 1972, a day after her father King Frederik IX, died following a short illness.