The Popularity of Queen Elizabeth II — A Sign Against Europe?

Two days ago, she celebrated her 90th birthday and is the longest reigning monarch Britain ever had. Statistics show that about 70 percent of those questioned would like her to stay Queen. That is the highest popularity since at least 1980 (https://de.statista.com/infografik/4695/umfrage-soll-queen-abdanken-oder-weitermachen/).

In lights of the upcoming referendum on 23rd of June, the popularity of Her Majesty is a commonly discussed topic in news media. The number of people who think that the monarchy does have an important role to play in the future of Britain is significantly higher now than it was in 1998. Besides that, most of those questioned would favour Britain remaining a monarchy in the future.

The question would be now, whether the popularity of the Queen will have a direct influence on the referendum in June or not. On the one hand, the past has shown that both monarchy and the European Union are possible at the same time. As a constitutional monarchy, the British monarch does not play such a big role in foreign politics as it would be the case if Britain had no democraticly elected government. This would lead to the assumtion that a very popular monarch does not automatically result in more votes against the European Union in the referendum. On the other hand, one could argue that a positive public opinion of the Queen might imply a more patriotic way of thinking among the British people. The popularity could therefore be seen as an indication for many no-voters in the referendum.

However, there are loads of other factors which probably have much more influence on the outcome of the referendum. But still, one thing is already certain: We will be overloaded by statistics, articles and opinion polls during the next two months.