Did you know Spain still has a monarchy? It seems like everyone in the World knows about the British monarchy, and Spain’s is a little more quiet.
This is one similarity between the UK, Spain and other countries that isn’t talked about enough! The majority of European countries are either semi-presidential or presidential republics. Semi-presidential represents those countries which have a leader, usually a president, alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, such as France. Presidential represents those countries having one supreme leader, such as Germany, Finland and Italy.
Given that there are no longer any European countries who have a total monarchy (such as Saudi Arabia), we have ‘constitutional monarchies’, meaning that there is a monarch, but they work alongside an elected government with a leader. This is the case for the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark. More than you were expecting, right?
But just how much power do the monarchs have?
The monarch is known as the head of state. However, when push comes to shove, they don’t have much power. Given that these countries are a democracy, and the monarchs haven’t been elected, it would be pretty immoral and commotion-causing if they were to decide they wish to rule in the same way of Henry VIII, for example. However, unbeknownst to many, the head of state (of the UK) is required to officially ‘appoint’ the prime minister and required to review and to pass all laws. But nowadays these actions are mostly formalities; there hasn’t come a time recently where a monarch has objected.
Did you know all these countries still have reigning monarchs today?
