The two protesters, each carrying a sheet of paper with the slogans “Not my king”, “Abolition of the monarchy” and “Down with feudalism”, stood on the sidewalk in front of the Palace of Westminster, seat of the British Parliament .
A female protester then approached the gates of Parliament, before police officers pulled her away, according to footage released by the Evening Standard newspaper.
“It’s a political place and it’s a political day,” the woman explained to AFP, without wanting to reveal her identity. “Parliament welcomed Carlos Windsor as the new head of state in this country without the people having been able to speak out (…) It is not fair,” she defended.
“We don’t know what he does, but he earns a salary of 24 million pounds ($28 million) a year,” he said. “Why? For saying hello and shaking hands,” she added.
The death of Elizabeth II, a figure of unity and stability during her 70-year reign, aroused immense emotion in the United Kingdom, where hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather in the coming days before her coffin in London.
Some dissenting voices, however, denounced the colonialist heritage of the British monarchy.
According to a survey published on the occasion of the queen’s Platinum Jubilee by the YouGov institute, 62% of Britons want the country to remain a monarchy, compared to 22% who advocate choosing the head of state.
Support for the monarchy is weaker among the young, and Carlos III is less popular than his mother.
Before the arrival of Elizabeth II’s coffin in Edinburgh on Sunday, Scottish police arrested a woman carrying a banner with the slogan “Abolish the monarchy” for disorderly conduct.
