In Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, more and more political forces want to depose the Queen as head of state. The royal couple’s charm offensive didn’t change that – on the contrary.
“NZZ Akzent”: William and Kate’s Caribbean disaster
author
David Vogel, Benedict Hofer
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When Britain’s Queen sends the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on a Commonwealth tour, it’s not without reason. At least that’s what the British press interpreted when it was announced in January that Kate and William would be sent on a tour in March. Observers agreed that it was important to get the remaining Commonwealth members in the Caribbean enthusiastic about the monarchy again.
A few months earlier, Barbados had renounced the Queen as head of state and transformed into an independent republic. The couple was supposed to prevent similar events in Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas.
But the royals failed, as Esthy Rüdiger tells in the podcast. The couple acted awkwardly on their journey and served colonial stereotypes. In addition, the need in the region to break away from the British royal family has grown over the years.
Whether on a cocoa plantation with the indigenous population of Belize or at a state dinner with the Prime Minister of Jamaica: the two met with so much criticism on their trip that William even felt compelled to state at the end of the tour that the position of the British crown in in the region and in the Commonwealth could be reconsidered.
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