The British people don’t want Prince Charles to be king, a royal commentator has claimed.
Graham Smith, the CEO of Republic, an organization campaigning for the abolition of the monarchy, has warned that the Royal Family could face challenges when Charles becomes king because people don’t want him.
According to Smith, recent polls and surveys showed that a significant section of the British people don’t want Charles to succeed his mother, Queen Elizabeth, and want to be able to choose who succeeds the Queen.
The Republic CEO said that people don’t want a system that gives them no choice about who becomes king. He argued that British values were inconsistent with the idea of a monarchy that is not open to change and cannot adapt to demands for choice.
“People do not particularly want Charles, I suspect the people that say Charles are the believers who think it ought to be Charles because he is the heir,” Smith said, according to Express.
“I think everybody else wants to have a choice,” he continued. “This is where British values and people’s expectations and opinions about individuals collide with the monarchy.”
Smith added that not allowing people to choose “is going to cause some significant problems and that is why they want to keep Charles front and center, to try and win people around.”
More millennials want Prince Harry to be king, poll suggested
The latest comments by Graham come after Monsters & Critics reported that results of a poll conducted in March/April 2021 suggested that more young Brits wanted Prince Harry to succeed the Queen.
The survey, conducted by Deltapoll, found that a higher proportion of younger respondents preferred Harry, Duke of Sussex, over his father Charles, Prince of Wales, and older brother Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.
While only 5 percent of baby boomers (aged between 57 and 75) said they wanted Prince Harry to be king, 23 percent of millennials (aged between 24 and 40) said they wanted him to be king.
Generation Z Brits preferred Harry over William, the poll suggested
The poll also found that Harry was more popular than William among Generation Z Brits (aged 18 to 24).
According to the poll, 23 percent of Generation Z Brits said they wanted Harry to succeed the Queen, while 22 percent said they wanted William to be king after the Queen.
British people preferred William over Charles
However, overall poll results showed that people preferred William over Charles, with 47 percent of total responders saying they wanted William to succeed the Queen. Only 27 percent said they wanted Charles.
More than half of those surveyed (51 percent) agreed the Megxit crisis was damaging the Royal Family’s reputation.
Eighteen percent (18 percent) said they wanted the monarchy abolished.
Commenting on the survey results, Smith said it reflected changing attitudes among younger Brits and showed that people don’t want the hereditary monarchy system.