King Charles III has spent decades advocating on a range of divisive issues
The head of state must be apolitical but King Charles III comes into the role with significant baggage.
Rita Panahi
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King Charles III has vowed to stop the incessant activism that marked his years as prince.
As monarch, he is expected to fulfil his duties while remaining strictly neutral on political matters, something the late Queen achieved throughout her 70-year reign.
But for decades, Prince Charles advocated on a range of divisive issues from Middle East politics to climate change alarmism, sometimes managing to combine both.
He famously claimed the Syrian civil war was caused by climate change. And then there’s the lengthy speech he delivered in 2010 on “Islam and the Environment”, in which he claimed adherence to Islamic principles would help save the environment.
The head of state must be apolitical, something the King touched on during his first address after the Queen’s death: “My life will, of course, change as I take up my new responsibilities.
It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply.”
But can he leave behind issues he has passionately advocated for if he wholeheartedly believes we are on the verge of cataclysmic climate change?
Charles has said that “mankind must go green or die” and in 2019 warned world leaders they had only 18 months “to keep climate change to survivable levels”.
This followed his previous prediction in 2009 that “our planet has reached a point of crisis and we have only seven years before we lose the levers of control”.
The problem with being seen as neutral is that we already know where he stands on so many issues.
Everyone in the commonwealth, with the exception of republicans, hopes Charles is a great, unifying monarch, but he comes into the role with significant baggage.
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