ZDF Documentary “The Power of the Queen”: The Working Queen and the “Heterogeneous of the Year”

On Tuesday evening, ZDF dedicated itself to the powerful women of one of Europe’s most famous royal families and paid homage to Sweden’s Queen Silvia and Sweden’s Crown Prince Victoria. Many in the country view the two as role models, as they also touch on hot topics, tackle topics forbidden in public and are committed to a good cause.

In fact, it is King Carl XVI. Gustav, who is at the top, but in this endless forest land, women are somehow the stars of the royal family. First of all Queen Silvia (78 years old), who, as the documentary “The Power of the Queen – Strong Swedish Women” by the aristocratic Julia Melchior shows, is the king’s wife with a real mission and gathers many sympathies in the country.

The daughter and heir to the throne, Princess Victoria (45), who will be the first woman to inherit the throne in more than 300 years, is in no way inferior to her in this respect. She is probably the most popular public figure in Sweden. According to Jan Eliasson, former Swedish Foreign Minister (2006) and Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (2012-2017), the most important is certainly.

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Dealing honestly with anorexia

As a teenager, Victoria struggled with her fate. It seemed impossible for her to deal with the pressure and future responsibility, which left her with real anorexia. Her mother was surprisingly open about it and sent a clear signal to the outside world: We’re the royals, but we’re definitely not hiding! Publicly, she asked for understanding of her daughter’s problems. A bravery who brought the royal family a great deal of recognition that she and her husband only dreamed of once.

When Silvia Renate Sommerlatt, a native of Heidelberg, married her king in 1976 – the couple met four years earlier at the Summer Olympics in Munich – he had no support in his homeland. At the time, there was complete agreement in the Swedish political scene: the monarchy should be abolished. Point! Eliasson explains that the discussion then was lukewarm. In addition, the couple after that also charmed the Swedish people more and more. But most importantly: Princess Victoria is said to have recovered after spending several years in the United States.

Not worthy of his daughter’s husband

Queens usually had little to report in Sweden. Absolute power was always in the hands of the king, but this gradually declined since the mid-19th century when democracy took hold. The Queen’s acting duties became more important during this time, although the big turning point came only with Queen Silvia, a true working queen.

The First Lady quickly set new standards and did not hesitate to break taboos (Victoria’s dyslexia also made it a problem) in order to give a voice to the weak in society. The daughter harnessed the strength of this mother, who also surrounded Victoria’s love for Daniel Westling when the public found the former fitness coach unworthy. He considered the son of a government employee and postal worker “uneducated” and “unworthy of his standing”.

A model country for equality

Today, Victoria and Daniel, who have two children Estelle (10) and Oscar (6), are a couple with a modern understanding of roles in their homeland. The fact that she is the one working in a prestigious job is very well received in the Kingdom of Sweden.

Balancing the throne and the family isn’t always easy, as the crown prince revealed in the documentary: “Both are difficult, but I care a lot about my role and my duties. Fortunately I have a man who is very understanding. We try,” says Victoria.

Even opponents of the monarchy find it difficult to criticize Victoria in a model country for egalitarianism. By the way, you and your daughter Estelle will ascend to the head of the royal family only because mother Sylvia once insisted on changing the law of succession to the throne. Previously, the throne was reserved for male descendants only. Female descendants came into play only when there was no male heir to the throne. Since the eighties things have changed.

The title of heir to the throne “Right of the Year”

Victoria caused quite a stir when she appeared as a surprise guest at a gay and lesbian party in 2013 and set an example of appreciation and tolerance. Then the hall exploded. “At first people didn’t believe it was her. They thought she was a drag queen imitating Victoria,” says Anders Ormann, editor-in-chief of QX magazine and organizer of the Jay Gala.

said Victoria, who presented the honorary award “Homo of the Year” on site and herself from Öhrmann magazine with the award “Hetero of the Year”.

The tough fight of the former bikini model

Victoria’s sister-in-law, Sofia, is considered a strong woman in Sweden. Before her polite life, she worked as a model and also posed in front of the camera to reveal pictures. She was also seen on a reality show. Of course, Prince Carl Philip’s wife later had to justify herself countless times for both. Meanwhile, she has reported to the media that she is in no way ashamed of her past, but that she would most likely do things differently today.

Sophia and her husband have campaigned against cyberbullying and online hate for years. Another reason why the former bikini model, which was viewed more than criticism, was able to win the sympathy of the Swedes. Victoria’s younger sister, Princess Madeleine, has less acceptance among the population, and this, of course, is also due to the fact that the 40-year-old girl decided to live in the United States a long time ago.

Clumsy Yeltsin, a sympathetic queen

Finally, back to Queen Silvia and a little anecdote. When Boris Yeltsin, a visitor to Sweden, once lifted his napkin from his plate at a great banquet and saw under it a small piece of crusty bread, which was only used to decorate it, but he took it as an amusing piece, that is, a little delicacy. The appetizer uses a knife and fork and of course the bread is broken into a thousand pieces. In order not to embarrass the then Russian president, the sympathetic Queen of Sweden did the same.

Updated on 09/08/2022 07:56

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