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Have a good laugh, because Brussels is still paying the subsidies to her kingdom: Queen Elizabeth II.
Photo: Chris Jackson / AP
Queen Elizabeth II is not a friend of Brexit - that is certain, even if she is not allowed to express herself politically.
When she read out her government's Brexit plans in her blue-yellow coat-hat combination, which has become known as the "Europe outfit", this was seen as the greatest possible nod towards Brussels in 2017.
With the exit from the EU, the British not only lose access to the European internal market and are no longer part of the European Union peace project, there will also no longer be any billions in subsidies on the island.
And the Queen also benefits from them personally.
Every year their farms receive millions from EU pots.
When the UK leaves the EU, these sources will dry up.
For her Sandringham estate alone, the monarch has received a total of over three million pounds (around 3.3 million euros) in grants over the past five years.
The trend was upwards: In 2019, over 900,000 pounds, around 55 percent more flowed there than in the previous year, calculated the Royal expert David McClure.
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The Queen at a summer party in Sandringham: Architecturally inconspicuous, but the castle had gas lighting and running water ahead of its time
Photo: Adrian Dennis / WPA / Getty Images
And unlike most royal estates, Sandringham is actually privately owned by the monarch;
she inherited it on the death of her father George VI.
in 1952. The royal family traditionally celebrates Christmas there, and the Queen also uses the property for bird hunting.
The interior consists of antiques that have been collected over centuries, including hand-painted wallpaper, a gift from the former Spanish King Alfonso XII.
"The Queen's True Worth"
McClure describes in his recently published book "The Queen's True Worth" - "The Queen's True Worth" - how the 8,000-acre estate in the eastern English county of Norfolk blossomed from a financial problem child into a showpiece.
According to McClure, the restructuring initiated by the royal husband, Prince Philip, was less likely to have contributed to this than the accession of Great Britain to the EU in 1973. As a result, the royals were able to receive the lucrative agricultural allowances for the property.
Philip had previously formed a large number of small companies into more economical large companies.
The heir to the throne Charles was able to acquire further monetary gifts from Brussels in the following years when he converted the lands - including the extremely lucrative "Duchy of Cornwall", from which Charles and his family, including son William and daughter-in-law Kate, their livelihoods - to ecological management .
For this, the avowed nature lover is said to have received a further 300 million pounds in subsidies from a fund for "rural development projects", writes the author.
Charles wants to run the farms completely organic by July, with the dung from 500 newly settled cattle replacing chemical agents.
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Confessing organic farmer Prince Charles
Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth / REUTERS
What belongs to the Queen - and what doesn't?
Literally "rich as the Queen of England" means having around £ 385 million in personal wealth.
The exact figure is difficult even for experts, because firstly, the royals are subject to different disclosure requirements than non-royal persons and corporations, and secondly, the boundary between their private wealth and ownership of the crown is complicated.
Although the queen has the latter in her role as monarch, she is not allowed to sell parts of this "Crown Estate" or keep income from renting and leasing.
This crown estate includes castles, entire streets of London and half of the British coast including the seabed up to twelve miles in front of it.
Well-known assets are Windsor Castle, where the Queen stays during the Corona crisis and sometimes rides in the garden, and Buckingham Palace in London, in whose large green areas Prime Minister Boris Johnson completed his sports program during the pandemic.
The Queen will be able to cope with the dwindling sources from Brussels - especially since some of the old lands and properties are now in a much better condition than they were a few decades ago thanks to grants from Brussels.
For British farmers, on the other hand, EU funding will cease to exist with Brexit.
For the time being, the British government wants to pay for the around three billion euros in agricultural subsidies.
So there should be no financial collapse for farmers at least until 2021.
They could then "prosper", announced the meanwhile retired finance minister Sajid Javid shortly before leaving.
And the country - which was a net contributor in the EU - could better dispose of its funds.
The Queen is likely to stick to her unspoken opinion - and despite all the compensations, she will not become a friend of Brexit.
After all, there is more to it than just subsidies.
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