At 8:00 p.m., the United Kingdom observed a minute of silence that, in the funeral chapel installed in Westminster Hall, resulted in a paralysis of the queue of British people who have been parading before the sovereign’s coffin since Wednesday to pay tribute to her.
The British take advantage of the last hours to pay their respects to the only queen they knew until her death at the age of 96 on September 8, after spending seven decades on the throne. The burning chapel will close its doors at 0630 (0530 GMT) on Monday.
“I decided at the last minute to join the queue and here we are. I’m going to be able to see it, so I’m very excited,” Chris Young, a 50-year-old firefighter, told AFP, expecting “maybe seven hours” to wait to fire “a really special lady.”
The importance of the monarch who reigned the country the longest is evident in the list of attendees at a funeral such as had not been seen in London since the death, in 1965, of Winston Churchill, who led the country during World War II. .
LEADERS VISIT THE BURNING CHAPEL
Her daughter-in-law, the queen consort Camila, stressed that Elizabeth II was “a woman alone” in a world of men. “There were no women prime ministers or presidents. She was the only one, so I think she carved out her own role for herself, ”said the king’s wife.
Biden, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, the monarchs of Spain, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Monaco, Belgium or the Netherlands, or the Japanese emperor Naruhito, will attend the state funeral at Westminster Abbey .
Bolsonaro took advantage of his visit to London and directed an electoral speech from the balcony of the Brazilian ambassador’s residence, in which he spoke out against “drug liberalization”, “legalizing abortion” and against “gender ideology”.
He also passed through the queen’s burning chapel, as Biden and his wife did, and the kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, without his father, Juan Carlos I, from whom he is distanced due to a scandal about his fortune that put in trouble to the Spanish crown.
Father and son, with their wives, did coincide instead at the Buckingham Palace reception.
In addition, Biden signed the official book of condolences, a moment in which he took the opportunity to praise the monarch.
“I have already explained that my mother and father thought that everyone (…) deserved to be treated with dignity and that is exactly what she conveyed,” explained the US president.
The concentration of so many leaders, and the funeral in general, present a security challenge “bigger than the 2012 Olympics,” Scotland Yard Assistant Deputy Commissioner Stuart Cundy told reporters.
Monday’s funeral will start with the transfer of the queen’s coffin from the burning chapel installed in the British Parliament, in the Westminster room, to the nearby abbey of the same name.
At 11:00 a.m. (10:00 GMT) the funeral service will begin, officiated by the Dean of Westminster, David Hoyle, and with a sermon by Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, of which the King of England is the head since the breakup of Henry VIII with Rome in the 16th century.
After the service, the coffin of Elizabeth II will travel through the streets of London in a mount pulled by sailors to the Wellington Arch, in Hyde Park Corner, in a procession in which a million people are expected.
From there he will drive to Windsor Castle, about 30 kilometers away, where a new, more familiar funeral service will take place, and his burial will take place in private.
FOR A MOMENT “UNREPEATABLE”
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather along the route, with millions upon millions following the funeral from pubs, screens in parks and even cinemas that will broadcast it.
Already on Saturday, 48 hours before the procession, the first people began to bet at the different points of the route.
Like Fiona Ogilvie, 54, who served in the RAF (air force), who was waiting near the abbey.
“When you join the RAF you pledge allegiance to the queen and it stays with you,” he told AFP, praising Elizabeth II as someone who “never shied away from duty.”
Or Carol Chadwick, a 64-year-old nurse, and her husband Tim, standing in Parliament Square with their camping chairs and armed with sandwiches. “We are here to pay our respects, but above all because it is an unrepeatable historical moment.”
