Queen Elizabeth’s funeral shows the country’s prestige, says professor

World leaders arrive in London, UK, this weekend for the Queen Elizabeth II funeral which takes place from Monday (19).

In an interview with CNN this Saturday (17), professor and specialist in the royal family Francisco Vieira said that the international meeting highlights the prestige of the United Kingdom.

“These ceremonies always have this particularity that shows the prestige of a country when a sovereign like this dies and has the presence of so many heads of state”, said Vieira.

“Perhaps the sovereign of Great Britain is the only one who manages to gather this amount of world representatives, which of course is an international meeting, this is followed by banquets, lunches, receptions that we do not have access to, but which the culmination will be in the Westminster Abbey, where they’ll all be side by side and we’ll be able to see who went and who didn’t,” he adds.

The expert says that King Charles III has experience in major events for having accompanied his mother for so many years. “He already has a lot of experience in this. He has seconded his mother in recent times and has made many international trips with heads of state from all over the world. At this point, there’s not much news for him,” he explains.

Challenges of the Head of State

According to the professor, one of the challenges of the new monarch as head of state will be the alignment with the plans outlined by the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss.

“He will have to follow a line that this new prime minister is now going to draw on international politics and domestic politics. King Charles is expected to fulfill his role as a mere representative of the incumbent government. He is a head of state and not a head of government,” she says.

Vieira adds that Charles has always been known for expressing his political opinions, which could also be a problem in the new role.

“I think his big test is perhaps this: he won’t be able to say what he thinks, but what the government that has just been sworn in draws as an international and internal line. All the economic problems that England is currently experiencing, it will all depend on what this new prime minister outlines. He is simply the spokesperson,” she concludes.