Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has announced she is abdicating in favour of her son, Prince Willem-Alexander.
In a pre-recorded address broadcast on TV, she said she would formally stand down on 30 April.
The queen, who is approaching her 75th birthday, said she had been thinking about this moment for several years and that now was "the moment to lay down my crown".
Queen Beatrix has been head of state since 1980, when her mother abdicated.
In the short televised statement, the queen said it was time for the throne to be held by "a new generation", adding that her son was ready to be king.
Prince Willem-Alexander, 45, is married and has three young children.
He will become the Netherland's first king since Willem III, who died in 1890.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte was also due to address the nation on Monday evening.
Abdication 'tradition'Queen Beatrix is the sixth monarch from the House of Orange-Nassau, which has ruled the Netherlands since the early 19th Century.
Queen Beatrix life and reign
1938: Born in Baarn in the Netherlands as the first daughter to Crown Princess Juliana
1940: Flees to Canada with her mother following the outbreak of World War II, but returns five years later following German surrender.
1966: Marries German aristocrat Claus von Amsberg, a diplomat in the German foreign office.
1980: Ascends the throne following the abdication of her ailing mother, Queen Juliana.
2002: Her husband Prince Claus dies, followed by her mother in 2003 and her father in 2004.
2009: Witnesses the attack on a Queen's Day parade where eight people are killed after a man ploughs his car into a crowd.
2012: Second son Prince Friso is left in a coma after being hit by an avalanche in Austria.
Correspondents say her abdication will not provoke a constitutional crisis. Under Dutch law, the monarch has few powers and the role is considered ceremonial.
In recent decades it has become the tradition for the monarch to abdicate.
Queen Beatrix's mother Juliana resigned the throne in 1980 on her 70th birthday, and her grandmother Wilhelmina abdicated in 1948 at the age of 68.
Queen Beatrix will be 75 on Thursday.
She has remained active in recent years, but her reign has also seen traumatic events.
In 2009 a would-be attacker killed eight people when he drove his car into crowds watching the queen and other members of the royal family in a national holiday parade.
In March last year her second son, Prince Friso, was struck by an avalanche in Austria and remains in a coma.
No comments:
Post a Comment