Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of London this Thursday (2) for the first day of celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. 70 years of her on the British throne will be celebrated in four days of pageantry, parties, street parades and thousands of other smaller events organized by the British.
Crowds gathered on the main thoroughfares leading to Buckingham Palace, cheering marching bands, waving flags and wearing paper crowns. Many slept on the streets to ensure a good position, and others settled in parks to have picnics while watching the parades on big screens.
Those hoping to see the Queen on the streets of London, however, will have to be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Due to advanced age and recent mobility issues reported by the Palace, the 96-year-old monarch’s direct participation in events in her honor will be limited compared to previous celebrations.
It will be the first time that Elizabeth will be greeted on the balcony of the Palace by approximately 1,500 British soldiers and officers during the military parade that opens the events on Thursday.
The first royals to arrive at the Palace were greeted with loud applause from the crowd present. Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William – second in line to the throne – arrived in a carriage accompanied by her three children, George, Charlotte and Louis, and Camilla Parker Bowles, wife of Prince Charles, direct heir to the British Crown.
Charles, who replaced his mother for the first time in a traditional speech to the UK Parliament last month, arrived on horseback, accompanied by son William and sister Princess Anne. The future king and his eldest son will perform other ceremonial duties on behalf of the queen during the celebrations, but some attention is focused on the royal family names who will not be present at crucial moments of the celebration.
Prince Andrew, removed from public life since 2019 and involved in a sex scandal in which he was accused of having sex with a minor, will not show up at his mother’s Platinum Jubilee.
Prince Harry, Elizabeth’s grandson who now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Meghan Markle, will participate in the parade but will be absent when the royal family gathers on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch a flight of the modern and historic planes. of the Royal Air Force—the British Air Force.
This Thursday marks not only the start of Jubilee celebrations, but also the 69th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth, who became queen after the death of her father, King George VI, in February 1952.
The monarchy’s weight in UK politics has shifted, and support has fallen among younger people, but the bulk of the British population is in favor of the Queen. A poll by The Sun newspaper released this week shows that she has 91.7% favorable opinions, while Prince Charles, first in line to the throne, has 67.5%.
“I can’t think of any other public figure, any other celebrity, any other president who could have remained so popular,” former Prime Minister John Major told BBC radio.
“Her life was played out in public – the highs, the lows, the good parts and the not-so-good parts. The Queen has represented our best for more than 70 years,” added the former prime minister, one of 14 names who led the government. British under Elizabeth’s reign until now.
