The monarch’s popularity has dropped since he took the throne; Prince William was the popular favorite to succeed Elizabeth II
About 62% of the British population think Charles III will make a good king, according to survey released by YouGov in February. The monarch will be crowned on Saturday (May 6, 2023) at Westminster Abbey, in London. He took the throne after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
King Charles III’s Population it fell since taking the throne on September 8, 2022. At the time, 70% of the British population had a positive opinion of the monarch.
Acceptance of King Charles III among the population is still lower than that of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William. The poll shows that 72% of Britons like the prince, compared to 62% the king.
One search held in May 2022, before the death of Queen Elizabeth II, showed that a large part of the population disapproved of Charles’ coronation. For ⅓ of Britons, Prince William should have succeeded as king after the monarch.
Furthermore, for 41% of Britons, the reign of Charles 3rd will be worse than that of Queen Elizabeth 2nd. For 7% it will be better. Another 14 could not answer.
In an interview with Power360, specialists said that the low popularity of Charles III is due to the monarch’s reputation and the distance from the public. Something that differs from the image of Queen Elizabeth II, seen as charismatic and recognized as “Grandfather of the English” by the British population.
O Power360 talked to:
- Alexandre Uehara, professor of international relations at ESPM;
- Kai Lehmann, professor at IRI-USP (Institute of International Relations at the University of São Paulo);
- Pedro Costa Jr, doctoral student in international relations at USP.
Experts have claimed that Charles III’s 1st marriage to Princess Diana (1961–1997) affected the monarch’s image. According to Pedro Costa Jr, the couple frequently graced the covers of British tabloids in the 90s, many of them marked by controversy.
Still married to Diana, Charles III maintained a relationship with Camilla, now his current wife. He admitted that he cheated on the then Princess of Wales in an interview with the documentary “Charles: the private man, the public role” (Charles: the private man, the public role, in Portuguese) released in 1994.
Because of this, the Queen Consort inherited a “dislike” of being seen as “the other”according to Pedro Costa Jr.
Professor Kai Lehmann explained that most Britons only knew Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Added to the monarch’s charisma, her popularity was greater than the British monarchy itself as an institution.
Even though Charles has less identification with the population, 60% of Britons still say that England should remain a monarchy. Another 26% think the country should be governed by a democratically elected head of state.
Methodology
To carry out the opinion poll, YouGov consulted, from 26 to 27 April, around 1 million Britons over 18 years of age online, selected from the company’s database.
When the respondent is recruited, a series of sociodemographic information is recorded. For nationally representative samples, YouGov draws a subsample of the panel that represents British adults in terms of age, gender, social class and education, and invites these people to respond to the surveys.
The person selected can only access the survey via their username and password, and respondents can only complete each survey once.
This report was written by journalism intern Eduarda Teixeira under the supervision of editor Victor Labaki.
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