"Thinning the monarchy doesn't sound like a good idea," said Princess Anne in the run-up to King Charles's coronation, in an unusual interview with the Canadian public channel CBC. Her words have been interpreted in the United Kingdom as a warning to her older brother of her plans to cut the number of members of the royal family in representative functions and reduce the institution's costs.
"I'm not sure what else we can do," stressed Ana, 72, mother of Zara Phillips and number 16 in the line of succession, implicitly referring to the exclusion of Prince Andrew and the American exile of Harry and Meghan.
Known as the hardest-working British royal, Ana has become Charles's closest confidante, 74, who gave her a very prominent role during Elizabeth II's funeral. At the coronation she will parade in uniform and on horseback, just after the royal carriage and as the bearer of the Palo de Oro, the position of symbolic bodyguard of the Royal House.
"They offered it to me and I said yes, so I have solved the problem of how to dress that day," Ana acknowledged, in an interview at St. James's Palace in the middle of the countdown to the May 6 ceremony.
"We know what we are going to have from that day on because he (Carlos) has been practicing for a while and I don't think it will change," added Princess Ana. "We know that he is very committed to his own level of service to the people, And that will continue to be so."
Ana acknowledged that Carlos's rise has already meant a "turn" in the way the rest of the family should support the monarch, although she avoided going any further when assessing her brother's supposed plans to modernize and "lose weight "the ancient institution.
In any case, the king's sister broke a spear for the role of the British Monarchy as "a guarantee of continuity and stability." "It is important that the monarchy provide that level of care and service in the long term, not in the short term," she added in the interview.
Canada is one of 14 Commonwealth countries, plus the United Kingdom, that still recognize the British monarch as head of state. According to a recent survey, 56% of Canadians are in favor of breaking their ties with the Crown, compared to 44% who want to continue business as usual.
"It is not a conversation that I would necessarily like to have," the princess acknowledged in the interview with the CBC channel. "But it is true that there comes a time when you have to have that debate, although I would like to highlight how the Monarchy facilitates a level of long-term stability that would be difficult to achieve in any other way."
Ana recognized the challenge of the succession of Elizabeth II: "My mother was queen for a long time, and although we knew that it would have to happen, it was not something we thought a lot about, because the key to the monarchy is continuity."
The princess acknowledged the pain she still feels when she sees the photos of her mother's deep loneliness at the funeral of her father, the Duke of Edinburgh, isolated from the rest of the family by the rules of distancing during the Covid: "The pandemic deprived especially older people from social interaction, and seeing that photo now is even worse."
Ana preferred not to go into the rag either in the recent controversy over slavery and in the decision of King Carlos to open an investigation into the possible ties of her ancestors: "It is not a topic of conversation that I want to delve into. I have a perspective , slightly different, perhaps more realistic. The modern context is very different, but slavery has not disappeared."
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