Elizabeth II was one of the rare planetary icons. The Queen: she deserves to be remembered with capital letters, which gave meaning to an institution as outdated as a monarchy. A giant of a politician - who says that monarchs don't do politics? - and, more meritoriously, she also acted as one, without ever uttering a sentence and in fact taking to the grave the secret of whether she favoured the right or was more to the left. It was the infallible formula that allowed her to be the queen of them all. Accused of being a rigid person, she spoke with gestures, perhaps the only way the monarchy could retain a certain magic. The United Kingdom is in mourning: but it is not only London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and all the cities of England that mourn her, but Scotland and Wales also. This idea of being queen of all her empire, even if some of her nations have sought independence, is what she has defended tooth and nail during her reign. And it explains how, since she acceded to the throne in 1952, Elizabeth II, in addition to reigning in the UK, was also queen of another 14 countries, former colonies that, despite becoming independent, opted for the monarchy as their political regime.
Her death at Balmoral castle in Scotland; her last public appearance, on the eve of her death, receiving the new Conservative prime minister, Liz Truss, in a skirt that perfectly identified where she was, were her last contributions, her last gestures, of how, despite being 96 years old, she understood a kingdom. A figure who was cohesive between different parts, not a fractious, confrontational and divisive personality. Scotland might be independent, but she wanted to be its queen too. It is absolutely unthinkable that a similar sequence could have happened before, and much less now, in the Madrid-ized Spain that now exists, where the autonomous communities have ceased to carry political weight, and where, after the institutional fracture that marked the autumn of 2017 and left in its wake a monarchy that was partisan and clearly harmful to the interests of Catalonia.
It will not be easy for her son Charles, who will reign as Charles III, acceding to the throne at the age of 73, an age at which these responsibilities can no longer be expected to arrive, and, in any case, they do not stay. We will have to wait and see whether the great capacity of Elizabeth II to win the esteem of her people can be replicated by her son. It seems difficult, almost impossible, since the Queen achieved a unique, exceptional status, also the result, surely, of a reign so long that, as the BBC has very well remembered, she had a prime minister who was born in 1874, that is, Winston Churchill, and a prime minister, Truss, born in 1975, 101 years apart. Charles will be, at best, a transitional king, whose first objective will be to ensure that the affection towards Elizabeth II does not end with her and open up a debate across the country on the future of the monarchy.
Because unlike his mother, he does lack the magic of silence. His opinions on many subjects, some controversial, are well known and, as always happens, some like them and others don't. And above all of that hovers princess Diana, with the 25th anniversary of her death in Paris having taken place just eight days ago, one of the last great crises of the sovereign with her people, since she never understood the affection aroused by that daughter-in-law, whom she could not stand, and who was even her rival in popularity. It's been years, but in this kind of thing the dead always haunt more than the living and the ghosts of the past are there. Not to mention recent controversies about millionaire donations from Qatar and other countries in that geographical area that the UK press has been publishing widely.
A new phase opens for a monarchy that some of us have always looked upon with respect, and we will never know what idea we would have of such an institution if those who occupied it in Spain had had a different and more tactful attitude towards what a nation represents through its history, its culture, its language and above all through its desire for freedom.