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The fact that the Queen almost completely stayed out of political affairs, neither commenting on lunatic decisions such as Brexit nor the behavior of the clown Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has always been credited to her as a great achievement.
Watching the acclaimed BBC series The Crown on the life of Elizabeth II, one hears this "keep out, be neutral, so provide stability" so often from her many advisers and herself that it's hardly heard anymore is endured.
And in many of the countless obituaries of Elisabeth, her sphinx-like hovering over things is celebrated one last time as her greatest achievement.
What does "non-partisan" actually mean?
In the wake of these hymns, in many texts and conversations, the claim that Charles III.
now, if you please, also have to be subordinated.
Even on German private television, the assessment could be heard live from London on Thursday evening that Charles would hopefully refrain from expressing himself as "politically" as in the past.
After all, as king he had to behave "impartially."
But what exactly do all the commentators mean, who point to the desired difference between Prince Charles and the new King Charles III.
keep pointing out when they say "political"?
It is about saving humanity from the destruction it has caused itself.
The fact that the question of whether this should finally be taken seriously is still being treated as »political« gives a deep insight.
And "stability" is over once and for all.
Either way.
Eye to eye with Donald Trump
The climate crisis was - in addition to a few irrelevant and often enough nonsensical statements on topics such as homeopathy and architecture - the central theme of the late Prince Charles in particular.
For example, when temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius were recorded in Great Britain for the first time in July 2022, Charles said that he had been pointing out "for quite some time now" that "the climate crisis is really a real emergency and it is absolutely essential that to tackle them".
He has even publicly expressed his solidarity with people who organize climate protests, namely Greta Thunberg: "I can completely understand them, because nobody wants to listen and they see their future being completely destroyed."
This commitment is not new: Charles also publicly campaigned for the Paris climate agreement, which was finally passed in 2015.
In 2019, he even attempted to dissuade anti-climate politician Donald Trump from withdrawing the United States from the climate pact in a personal conversation.
Charles hasn't been anxious for a long time.
Relevance through irrelevance?
At the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020, the then Prince of Wales said: »Do we want to go down in history as the people who did nothing to bring the world back from the abyss, to restore balance when we could?
I do not want that."
This is what the many commentators mean when they emphasize that Charles III.
but please be »apolitical« in the future.
There is much more speculation about trivialities such as whether he will now move into Buckingham Palace or which of his grandchildren will be able to inherit which title.
The royal family ensures its relevance by remaining as irrelevant as possible.
The Daily Mail's Looming Hopes
The, to put it politely, very conservative British newspaper »Daily Mail« reports at length on such questions, dedicating a few paragraphs in its »What to expect« text to the commitment of the new king to the climate, to add: »However, if he becomes king , he won't be able to talk much on the subject.” It sounds half hopeful, half threatening.
After all, the "Daily Mail" is, among other things, the newspaper that was responsible for the media hunts against various royals.
Hardly a day goes by that she doesn't let someone hit Meghan Markle.
Now Charles is absolutely right in his repeated concern, while the Daily Mail has "a long history of climate change denial," as a climate policy expert at the London School of Economics once noted.
Guest authors who question the reality of man-made climate change or the urgent need for extremely rapid action still have their say there all the time.
Worse still, the new prime minister, Liz Truss, who Elizabeth II herself appointed as the last, heroic act, has already proven with her first official acts that Great Britain is by no means on a safe, stable path towards CO₂ neutrality.
For example, Truss filled the position of Secretary of Commerce with Jacob Rees-Mogg of all people.
This is the lanky man you probably know from a photograph in which he appeared to be napping on a bench in Parliament.
»Alarmism« and »doomsday preachers«
Rees-Mogg recently advocated extracting "every last drop" of oil from the North Sea, which is in stark contrast to what actually needs to be done if we are to at least mitigate the disaster.
Rees-Mogg finds fracking gas “very clean”.
He has called warnings about the climate crisis "alarmism" and the warning experts "doomsday preachers".
This is a diction that is otherwise more familiar from the denials who have their say in the »Daily Mail«.
Meanwhile, Truss-appointed Environment Minister Ranil Jayawardena last year called for "protecting our landscape" from solar panels.
You don't really need it because wind energy offers so much potential.
It seems that the new British government is still living in the fiction that the question of whether the catastrophe should really be averted is "political".
Unlike the Tory leadership, Britain's new king has been living in the grim reality that we humans have created for many years.
It will take loud, powerful voices like the ones that a British head of state still has at their disposal if humanity is to turn things around.
Because Charles is already 73 years old, people always talk a little bit, as if he'll be gone soon anyway.
In this regard, it is worth remembering that Charles' mother lived to be 96, and his father to be almost 100 years old.
It may well be that the new king will rule for many years - years in which the effects of global warming will become increasingly dramatic.
A beacon for the salvation of mankind
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Christian Stocker
We are the experiment
Publisher: Karl Blessing
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Karl Blessing
Number of pages: 384
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Charles III
should by no means stop calling for more and faster climate protection, "tradition" or not.
The institution of the British monarchy will not survive the climate crisis unscathed either.
To pretend that keeping quiet in the service of "tradition" is more important than the future of humanity is absurd.
Brits will appreciate it, as three-quarters of them see climate change as the biggest threat facing their country.
Charles might, one Guardian commentator surmised, put that urgency ahead of "constitutional niceties."
The monarchy also derives its legitimacy from avoiding controversy, but the new king is someone who has never avoided controversy: "In any case, his reign will probably not be boring."
The British and mankind is to be wished that it will be even more: namely, a beacon for the salvation of mankind.