Once again, Joaquim of Denmark has been seen trying to prove that he is not the eternal second, as the press of his country called him. And although the members of the royal houses must always stay out of politics, he has revealed himself as an international analyst: “We thought the world was rosy and we ignored the warning signs. We only woke up when the Russians invaded Ukraine. The West has taken so long to recognize the new reality that we are falling behind and running out of time.” King Frederik’s brother made these statements in the speech he delivered at the Copenhagen headquarters of Aalborg University on the occasion of the first anniversary of the National Defense Technology Centre.
“On February 24, 2022, we woke up in a new reality”, Joaquim began by saying: “But this reality was already there and the Ukrainians had suffered it for eight years. Now we’re paying negative interest rates to lull ourselves when we shouldn’t have. The alarm signals were already lit in 2008, when Russia occupied large areas of Georgia after the conflict over the separatist region of South Ossetia,” the prince continued. “The West has been seeing the world in pink since 1990, even if it wasn’t, and continued to see it that way until at least 2014, when the Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula took place and we started to realize that the world we thought existed was not what we thought it was.”
“If Prince Joachim wants to have strong views on Danish defence, and Frederik on the environment, there is no doubt that at some point they will face harsh political criticism,” said political analyst Hans Engell.
Queen Margaret’s second son has never settled for the role of the future king’s brother, first, and not now either, after his mother abdicated in favor of Frederic and him as the fifth heir to the throne, behind the his nephews Christian, Isabel, Vicenç and Josefina. Since 2020, he has loved living outside his country and away from the royal family. The estrangement increased after Queen Margaret removed the title of princes from his four children: Nicholas and Felix, from his marriage to Alexandra Manley, and Henry and Athena, with his current wife, Marie Cavallier.
Since September, he has been living with his family in Washington, where he works as a military attaché at the Danish embassy, ??and previously held the same position in Paris.
Joaquim has extensive experience as a military man. On the occasion of his transfer to Washington he was promoted to brigadier. He has served in the Royal Guard, commanded a tank squadron, completed high-ranking officer studies at the prestigious École Militaire in Paris and collaborated in the development and implementation of a new concept of defense for the Danish reserve units.
Joaquim was not the only one, last week Guillem de Gal·les also raised his voice to call for an end to the conflict in Gaza: “Too many people have died, and I, like many others, want the fighting to end ‘finish as soon as possible. There is a desperate need for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza. It is essential that help arrives and the hostages are released.”
