A prince by shadow and a king by surprise,Who is Frederick X, the new king of Denmark?

Suddenly, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark announced that she was stepping down from the country's throne, to be succeeded by her son, Prince Frederik, who had always hidden from the attention of the press despite his reputation for loving celebration and defending environmental issues.

In her speech to her people on New Year's Eve, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark suddenly announced her resignation from the country's throne, after having ruled for the equivalent of 52 years, and that Crown Prince Frederik will succeed her following the inauguration ceremony in mid-January.

Queen Margaret said: “On January 14, 2024, 52 years after succeeding my beloved father, I will step down as Queen of Denmark, and leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.” The Queen explained her decision by saying, "The surgery I underwent caused me to think about the future, and about the question of whether the time has come to transfer responsibilities to the next generation."

Following the speech, a statement issued by the Danish Prime Minister’s office stated that “Her Majesty Queen Margaret II has decided to abdicate and on January 14, 2024, when the Queen abdicates the throne, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik will assume the throne.” .

After his accession to the throne, Prince Frederick will receive the title of "King Frederick X." The Crown Prince of Denmark is considered a mysterious figure, as he remained far from the attention of the local and international press for a long time, although he was famous for his love of celebrations in his youth and his defense of environmental issues.

Prince of ceremonies

Prince Frederik was born in 1968 to a mother, the Queen of Denmark, and a father, a French diplomat from a noble family, named Henri de Laborde de Montpas. The prince was known for his rebellion during his teenage years, as specialists in the affairs of the Danish royal family describe him as "a lonely and tortured teenager."

Getty Reed, an expert on the affairs of the Royal Family in Denmark, said that Prince Frederik “was not a rebel in the strict sense of the word, but in his childhood and youth he did not show satisfaction with the spotlight around him and with his future of becoming king.”

The prince received his university studies at Aarhus University, and studied for a full year at Harvard University in the United States under the pseudonym Fredrik Henriksen, where he graduated in 1995 and obtained a master’s degree in political science. He was the first member of the Danish royal family to complete his university studies.

According to what the British newspaper The Guardian wrote , Prince Frederick's dissatisfaction with his life led him to find solace in his love of fast cars, celebration, and sports. The prince previously stated: “I do not want to lock myself in a castle. I want to be myself, a human being,” indicating that he will maintain this behavior even after assuming the throne.

Today, Prince Frederick is 55 years old, and is married to Princess Mary Donaldson, of Australian origin. The royal couple had four children, the eldest of whom is Prince Christian, who is 18 years old.

Experienced military man and environmentalist

Although Frederick has kept a low profile, he is very popular among all Danes, and international media revealed that 80% of the people are satisfied with the Crown Prince assuming the throne of the country.

In addition to his university studies and wild hobbies, Prince Frederik is known as an experienced military man, having served in three different arms within the Danish army. The prince worked in the frogman corps of his country's navy, and he was one of the four who passed all the tests of this corps, out of about 300 recruits, and his comrades-in-arms called him "Pingo," meaning the penguin .

Politically, Prince Frederick is known for his great interest in and defense of environmental and climate issues. According to the official website of the Royal Family in Denmark, “Since the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-15) was held in Copenhagen in 2009, Prince Frederik has committed to focusing on climate and environmental challenges, especially making Denmark a country that sets an example in the green transition.”

Little is known about the prince's political positions, due to his distance from the press, and to the form of the monarchy in the country, which limits the monarch's mission to its ceremonial role, meaning that he does not interfere in the country's internal partisan politics. After assuming the throne on January 14, King Frederick X will become King of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.

After permanently withdrawing its soldiers France announces the closure of its embassy in Niger “until further notice”

The French Foreign Ministry announced the closure of the Paris embassy in Niger until further notice, about two weeks after the last remaining French forces left the country, in a withdrawal that dealt another blow to Paris’s influence in West Africa.

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday that the French Embassy in Niger, which Paris announced would be closed before Christmas, is officially closed “until further notice” and will continue its activities from Paris.

The ministry stated in a statement that “the French embassy in Niger is now closed until further notice,” adding: “In fact, for five months our embassy has been facing serious obstacles that make it impossible to perform its duties: a cordon around the embassy’s headquarters, restrictions on the movement of its workers, and a ban on the entry of all diplomats who were "They are scheduled to arrive in Niger."

The French Foreign Ministry said, "The embassy will continue its activities from Paris, and will maintain contact with French citizens in the country and with non-governmental organizations working in the humanitarian field that we continue to fund."

On December 22, the last remaining French forces left the country in a withdrawal that dealt another blow to Paris’s influence in West Africa, thus concluding its military presence in Niger, which lasted more than ten years.

Relations between Niger and France, its former colony, became tense shortly after the coup last July, when several protests broke out around the French military base in Niger, and the French embassy was also attacked afterwards.

The army officers who seized power in Niger last July made the departure of the French army one of their main demands, similar to the military juntas in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, which severed long-standing security relations with France after coups that took place between 2020 and 2022.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last September that 1,500 troops would withdraw from Niger by the end of 2023.

France deployed up to 5,500 soldiers in the Sahel region as part of what it called the "war on terrorism."