British King Charles III. and Queen Camila visited Sydney on Friday. This is the first visit of the reigning British monarch to Australia in more than a decade, writes the AP agency. Foreign trip of Charles III. in Australia, it also revived the debate on ending local constitutional ties to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Photo: TASR/AP, Brook Mitchell
British King Charles III. and Britain’s Queen Camilla exit a plane after arriving at Sydney Airport on Friday, October 18, 2024.
The royal couple will spend six days in Australia. By the standards of the British monarchy, this is a relatively short period of time, but the curtailment of travel plans was required due to cancer treatment of the 75-year-old monarch.
Karol and Kamila were welcomed at Sydney airport by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and the King’s representative in Australia, Governor-General Sam Mostyln.
The AP agency reminds that Charles thus historically became only the second reigning British monarch to visit Australia. The first was his mother, Elizabeth II, 70 years ago.
Monarchists expect his visit to strengthen ties between Australians and the British king. Opponents, on the other hand, hope that citizens will reject the concept in which their head of state is someone from the opposite side of the world.
The Australian Republic Movement, which aims to replace the British monarch as head of state with an Australian citizen, has compared the royal visit to an entertainment tour. This week it also launched a campaign called “Waving Goodbye to the Monarchy: A Farewell Tour from Oz!”.
“To Charles and Kamil we say: ‘Welcome, we hope you are enjoying your time in our country and are enjoying your stay in good health and good spirits. However, we also expect this to be the last tour by a sitting Australian monarch. We look forward to the next time they come to visit us. that we will welcome them as foreign guests,” declared Esther Anatolitisová from the movement.
Conversely, Philip Benwell, chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, criticized the prime ministers of all six states in Australia for declining an invitation to attend a reception for Charles in the capital, Canberra. Each of the prime ministers explained that they had more pressing obligations that day, specifically, for example, a government meeting or a foreign trip.
“Not coming to the reception can be considered an insulting gesture because this is not an ordinary visit. This is the first ever visit of a king to Australia,” Benwell pointed out.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
