LONDON (Reuters) – Police arrested the leader of the anti-monarchy group Republic hours before King Charles’s coronation on Saturday and removed him from several hundred yellow-clad protesters who had gathered in crowds lining the procession route in the city centre. London.
Republic said it would mount the largest protest against a British monarch in modern history. The demonstrators wore yellow T-shirts to distinguish themselves from those dressed in red, white and blue, and held signs reading “Not mine”.
They spent most of the service booing or singing songs like “He’s Just an Ordinary Guy”.
But London’s police warned it would take action if protesters tried to “disrupt the enjoyment and celebration” of the day, forming a ring around the group.
Republic said its leader, Graham Smith, was arrested on Saturday morning and a photo posted on Twitter showed him sitting on the ground surrounded by police.
“It’s disgusting and massively overrated,” said Kevin John, 57, a Devon vendor who was among the protesters.
“It’s also very counterproductive by the police because all they’ve done is create an enormous amount of publicity for us. It’s absolutely insane.”
Police did not confirm Smith’s arrest but said they had arrested four people on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and three people on suspicion of possession of material to cause criminal damage in what they described as a “major police operation”.
Republic said hundreds of its banners had been seized.
“As we speak, the entire Republic core team is still locked down,” she said on Twitter. “They will likely be released when the entire royal PR show is over.”
Protests also took place in Glasgow, Scotland, and Cardiff, Wales, with banners unfurled saying: “Abolish the monarchy, feed the people.” On social media, many have compared Britain’s cost-of-living crisis to the pomp and pageantry shown at the coronation ceremony.
Although the demonstrators were a minority compared to the tens of thousands who gathered on the streets of London in support of the king, opinion polls indicate that support for the monarchy is declining and is weakest among young people.
[1/7] Protesters hold placards as people gather on the day of the coronation ceremony of Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla, in London, Britain, May 6, 2023. REUTERS/Perushka van de Woo/Pool
With the crown passing from Queen Elizabeth to her less popular son, Republican activists hope Charles will be the last British monarch to be crowned.
“She has a hereditary billionaire born into wealth and privilege who basically symbolizes the inequality of wealth and power in our society,” Labor MP Clive Lewis said.
Astonishingly expensive
In London, demonstrators demanded an elected head of state. They say the royal family has no place in a modern constitutional democracy and is too expensive to maintain.
Most of the anti-monarchy protesters had gathered on Saturday in Trafalgar Square next to the bronze statue of King Charles I, who was beheaded in 1649, ushering in a short-lived republic.
Some held banners reading “privatize them” and “abolish the monarchy, not the right to protest”.
Other banners featured a picture of Megan, wife of Prince Harry, son of Charles, with the words “Princess of the People”, and “God Save the King” with a picture of the late football player Pele.
Since Charles became king last September, there have been protests at royal events. He was harassed at a Commonwealth Day event in Westminster Abbey in March and targeted by whites in York in November.
The Queen’s death has also reignited debates in other parts of the world, such as Australia and Jamaica, about the need to retain Charles as head of state.
The New South Wales state government said it had decided not to light the sails of the Sydney Opera House to celebrate the coronation in order to save money.
While many other European monarchies have come and gone, or greatly diminished in size and importance, the British royal family has remained remarkably resilient.
In Britain, polls show that the majority of the population still wants the royal family, but there is a long-term trend of declining support.
YouGov survey last month is found 64% of Britons said they had little or no interest in the coronation. Among those between the ages of 18 and 24, the number of those who showed little or no interest rose to 75%.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Angus McSwan, Alexandra Hudson)
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