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Greece: Rulers from all over Europe at the funeral of former King Constantine

Sovereigns from across Europe are due to attend the noon funeral of the last king of Greece, Constantine II, who died on Tuesday in Athens at the age of 82, in Athens on Monday, but no national tribute will be paid to this controversial former monarch at the Athens proclamation (or Metropolitan), the kings and queens of Spain, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Prince Albert II of Monaco, the Norwegian Crown Prince, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg will pay a last respect to the former Greek sovereign. The British royal family will be represented by Princess Anne, sister of Charles III, both cousins ​​of Constantine II, Buckingham Palace said on Friday. Greek media wondered this weekend about the possible presence of Prince William, the godson of the king’s ex-king of Greece, but without confirmation or denial. The former Queen of Spain, Sophie, sister of Constantine, and her husband Juan Carlos will also be present be present in the capital In the early hours of the morning, hundreds of people lined up in front of the cathedral to pray in front of the coffin of the deceased, which for the occasion was covered with a large piece of fabric in the national colors of blue and white. The coffin will be on display for this tribute until 10:00 a.m. local time (8:00 a.m. GMT) in a chapel near the cathedral as surrounding roads were closed to traffic, promising congestion in the city center of the Greek capital. A total of 187 guests are expected to attend this funeral.Deeply Republican, the vast majority of the population have hesitated between indifference and anger since the descendant of the Schleswig-Holstein-Glücksburg royal family died on Tuesday at a private hospital in Athens after suffering a stroke the day after Constantine Death, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that the funeral would be private. Yes, the current head of state Katerina Sakellaropoulou will still go to the funeral of a fallen king in 1974 during the restoration of the republic after the dark period of the dictatorship (1967-1974). In Athens only the flags around the Panathenaic Stadium, the ancient stadium of the Greek capital , renovated in 1896 for the first modern Olympic Games, were lowered. In 1960 Constantine won a gold medal in sailing at the Olympic Games in Rome. He was also an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – Old Wounds – Following the Orthodox religious ceremony, he will be buried privately at the former royal residence at Tatoi, north of Athens, where most of the former members of the royal family are buried, including King George I ., the first of the Danish dynasty, ascended the Greek throne in 1863. The death of the ex-monarch, who lived in exile for around forty years, revived old wounds in Greece, especially for his role during the dictatorship of the colonels (1967-1974), which had been criticized for failing to prevent the junta from taking power Constantine left Greece in 1968 and lived in London for forty years before returning to his country in 2013 and continuing to call himself “King”. The monarchy in Greece was abolished in a referendum in 1974, which officially deposed Constantine II with a majority of 70%. Constantin Glücksburg, as he is called by some media without mentioning his earlier time as king, has long struggled in court with the Greek state, which had confiscated royal property. In 1994 he was stripped of his citizenship and had to appear before the European Court of Human Rights filed a complaint to get his property back, which ordered Greece to pay 14 million in 2002 a euro to the royal family.kan-yap/ib