The explosive interview of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, gave a boost to the Republicans in Australia who are trying not to be submissive to Elizabeth II, following the attempt at a referendum at the end of 1999.
Australia, a former British colony operating under a federated monarchy, is ruled by Queen Elizabeth II, who is currently represented in the oceanic country by Governor-General David Hurley, who is charged with swearing in government and passing laws. to be promulgated.
“This is a regular debate. The head of our state must be an Australian citizen, one of us, not the queen or king of the United Kingdom,” former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Tuesday. Local ABC to the question about the controversial interview and its consequences on the perception of the Australian monarchy.
Liberal Turnbull led the Republican Movement in the 1999 referendum, in which 45.13 percent voted in favor of Australia to become a republic, while 54.87 percent did so in favor of the monarchy.
Turnbull, who said it was clear that the Windsors were “not a happy family”, acknowledged that Australia was not yet ready to change the system until Queen Elizabeth II ended her reign, either by abdication or through death.
“I do not think that today the country has the courage for this change (…) It has been an extraordinary head of state and I sincerely believe that in Australia there are more Elizabethans than monarchists,” the former president said at one point. which some Republicans have used on social media to defend the change in the system.
An Ipsos poll published in January this year found that 40% of Australians oppose the republic, 34% support it, while 26% are undecided.
Historian Jenny Hocking, who won a lengthy legal battle last year to access the letters Queen Elizabeth II sent to her Australian representative during the 1975 removal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam after a deep political crisis, criticized the monarchy.
“The interview with Harry and Meghan shows that the monarchy is contactless and irrelevant to modern Australia. Why our head of state is one of them and not one of us. There is no reason why Australia should not become a republic now,” he noted. Hocking in a tweet.
For her part, Sandy Blair, the head of the Republican movement in Australia, acknowledged that she expects support for her cause to grow after Oprah Winfrey’s interview highlighted the need for change.
“It is a family in many ways that is not in touch with ordinary Australians. (…) I saw a British monarchy that was not in tune with modern Australia,” the Republican said in an interview with The Guardian.
In a conversation with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle, an African-American mother, revealed that a member of the royal family expressed concern about the skin color her first child would have with Prince Harry; that during her pregnancy she thought of committing suicide and that the monarchy, which sponsors the mental health entities, refused to help her.