Hundreds of millions of people will be celebrating King Charles’ coronation on Saturday night and watching along, but not everyone is in favour of the event.
Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi is the Greens spokesperson for a republic.
She told SBS News the only reason Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should be going to London would be to tell the King Australia is becoming a republic.
“During a brutal cost of living and housing crisis, it is disgusting that Albanese has made it a priority to fly to the UK to bask in the grotesque excesses, pomp and pageantry of an institution so out of touch with everyday people,” she said on Thursday.
“The British monarchy and their obscene wealth is a racist, colonial institution built on the blood, backs and stolen wealth of brown and black people. The violent legacies of British colonialism are felt by people and countries all over the globe, including of course here in Australia, a nation born of dispossession and violence,” she said.
She pointed out nations such as Barbados were becoming republics but said Mr Albanese “is taking us backwards with his cringeworthy behaviour.”
Jamaica is also pushing to become a republic, with its prime minister committing to hold a referendum on the topic by 2025.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has also taken a republican stance but will attend the coronation.
Campaign chair of the Australian Monarchist League, Eric Abetz, is pro-monarchy and coronation and told SBS, “There’s nothing broken about it, it definitely doesn’t need fixing and the one thing we don’t want is the sort of circus that unfortunately the United States and other republics face.”
Indigenous leaders ask for reparations
Independent Senator for Victoria Lidia Thorpe has been vocal against the British monarchy in the past. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
Senator Lidia Thorpe is among a group of Indigenous leaders from 12 countries demanding King Charles apologise to First Nations people and compensate them for the effects of colonisation.
“The so-called king needs to be held accountable,” Senator Thorpe told NITV.
“We need him, as part of his coronation and as part of the legacy of his ancestors who did so much damage, to say sorry.”
The letter also calls on the new monarch to acknowledge the genocides sparked by his empire’s invasions of those territories.
Do we have to pledge allegiance to the King?
One of the most divisive elements of the King’s coronation liturgy is entirely new.
Deviating from the traditional ‘Homage of the Peers’, the section will include a ‘Homage of the People’, inviting everyone in the British realms and territories around the world, including Australia, to pledge their allegiance to the King, his heirs and successors.
Former Socceroo Craig Foster is the co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement. Source: AAP
Craig Foster is the co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement and is not a fan of the pledge.
“This is saying to every Australia of all of our 300 cultural backgrounds, this is saying to First Nations people very clearly, we’re asking you, to stand and cry out your allegiance to your ruler and his heirs and successors. It’s a disgraceful ask,” he told SBS News.
What is the feeling in the United Kingdom about the coronation?
Over in the UK many people are unhappy that the new King is putting on an expensive event while the country deals with a cost of living crisis.
King Charles did promise a “slimmed down” coronation, only inviting 2,000 guests, compared to the 8,000 his mother had in attendance at her coronation in 1953.
The UK government won’t say how much is being spent on the coronation, but some estimates put it at $188 million.
Of course there are those that are all in on the pomp and ceremony and
People in Scotland are not very enthusiastic about the coronation, with four-fifths of respondents saying they didn’t care very much, or at all, about the event, according to a poll for YouGov.
Fans of Scottish football club Celtic FC, which has Irish heritage, were filmed chanting “you can shove your coronation up your arse” at the Scottish Cup semi-final against arch-rivals Rangers FC.
By contrast, Rangers fans appeared to be supportive of the coronation, adorning flags with King Charles’ face and setting off red, blue and white flares.
Are protests being planned for the coronation?
Supporters of Republic, a group founded in 1983 that campaigns for an elected head of state, are planning their biggest ever protest. They believe Charles’ accession to the throne presents their best chance of ending the monarchy, which traces its history back more than 1,000 years.
Should Australians swear allegiance to the new King? Anthony Albanese won’t say
Graham Smith, its head, sees the grand coronation at London’s Westminster Abbey as the perfect opportunity to expose what he regards as an anachronistic institution with no place in a 21st century democracy, particularly at a time when people are facing the worst cost of living crisis in decades.
Smith said he expected over 1,500 people dressed in yellow shirts to join the protest on Saturday, where they will hold up placards, and give speeches.
When the newly crowned King passes in his gold coach, through streets lined with tens of thousands of well-wishers, they plan to boo loudly and chant “not my king”.
First published in SBS News