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The late British Queen Elizabeth II. according to former foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09), she was a true professional. For TN.cz she recalled their meetings together, during which she also met her husband, Prince Philip.
Prince Karel Schwarzenberg with Queen Elizabeth II. met twice in total. Once also directly to Buckingham Palace. The honorary president of TOP 09 remembers this meeting with particular affection. “It was a good story,” Schwarzenberg begins to tell of his first meeting with the British monarch. They were introduced by his uncle, who had stayed at the former minister’s hotel in Vienna about a month earlier, and had spoken highly of him to the queen.
“The queen was interested. And I said to her, ‘Thank you for that, because if I hadn’t bombed a palace residence, I wouldn’t have been able to build a hotel there because of the environmentalists.’ After that she laughed and said I was the first person to thank her for the attack. I told her we were rooting for it at the time because we were against the Nazis, “Schwarzenberg recalls.
The funny story accompanies not only the meeting with the queen, but also with her husband, Prince Philip, whom the prince met in Germany in a hunting lodge. They played charades alongside the Duke of Edinburgh. According to Schwarzenberg, he wasn’t afraid to make fun of himself.
“Just then there was a famous movie called Never on Sunday, where a sea captain falls in love with a girl from the port. I was on a team with the Duke of Edinburgh so I thought if I had a sailor here , we would show the other team this movie. And he played the captain in love. And he played him flawlessly. It was really fun, “he recalls.
According to Schwarzenberg, an era also ends with the queen’s departure. She led Britain through a difficult time when she lost her colonial empire. “But it is also thanks to her that there have never been riots in England. There have been no stormy events like in France after the loss of Algeria. Everything was peaceful and civil”, assesses the prince.
Queen Elizabeth II. according to the former minister she was a helpful, professional and very interesting woman. Like her father, she had a sense of duty. “One has to fulfill one’s duties. Politicians, in particular, should be inspired by this. Fulfilling one’s duty and being responsible – this comes first. A sense of duty is something everyone should learn from the queen,” encourages Schwarzenberg.
The new King Karel III is said to have the same sense of duty. “He performs all of his duties as he does. He is an interesting person. He is not spectacular, but he really understands things and has a sense of duty that really exists in that family,” assesses the king.
Because of the qualities that King Charles III. undoubtedly, according to Karl Schwarzenberg, despite the queen’s departure, the British monarchy is not threatened. “Precisely because King Charles III will probably reign in the same spirit, the monarchy will not be in danger”, estimates the former minister.
The prince was very close to the queen, even by blood. He is supposed to be a distant nephew of Queen Elizabeth II, and therefore also a distant cousin of the current king. But he himself modestly says that he cannot talk about the family relationship, because he is really distant.
Even so, the queen’s departure impressed him. “I myself am an old grandfather. I remember hearing about his wedding, then his coronation and now his funeral. He filled my whole life, and so with his passing he ends most of my life. He was so exemplary that he was so exemplary that left a strong impression on a person “, concludes Schwarzenberg remembering the late British monarch.
Queen Elizabeth and her sense of humor. There are many funny stories about her:
TN.cz
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