THE death of Queen Elizabeth II96 years old, ending the longest reign in history, after 70 years, arouses curiosity about the monarchy, the powers and responsibilities of today’s kings and queens. After all, what can and cannot they do and what are their influences on the political life of the country?

The system in force in the United Kingdom is the parliamentary monarchy. In it, the figure of the king exercises the function of head of state, with a diplomatic function, being the prime minister, elected by parliament, the head of government. It is up to him to make the decisions that will directly impact the lives of the people who live there. Currently, the post of Prime Minister is held by Liz Trussassumed this week.

“The powers of the king in this regime, in general, are those of head of state, diplomatic representations, participation in international meetings, signing of agreements. It is he who receives world leaders when they visit the country. But it is wrong to say that the popular expression that says the person is the “Queen of England”, with the connotation of an illustrative figure. In fact, it expresses in a simplified way that the king n has no power of government, but rather a position of representation”, explains the historian of Unifep, André Machado.

Machado points out that it is important to clarify that the functions of a monarch are very different, depending on the historical moment of the reign.

“For a long time in Europe kings have had absolute power, in the sense of being both heads of state and government, with little limitation of action. This changes significantly precisely in England, since the English and French revolutions, when the becomes a constitutional monarchy and the power of the kings is limited by laws and especially by the highest law of the country, which is the Constitution”, explains the historian.

This means that current monarchical regimes, in general, and also in Europe, as the professor explains, attribute to the king or queen a role of diplomatic political representation.

“They can represent the state in various situations, but they don’t have the ability to act as the head of government, especially in the UK, they don’t really have the instruments to act in day-to-day politics. of the community.”

But it is a fact that for the whole history and tradition of the monarchy in England, there is a lot of influence of the king in various aspects of life in the country, the historian points out.

“There is this tradition, the Queen (Elisabeth) had her representation in the House of Lords, in Parliament, but that does not amount to a power of interference in the decisions themselves, but of influence”.

For the historian, the monarchy in England was closely linked to the figure of Queen Elizabeth and her death has an impact on the country.

“Obviously it has a very important symbolic and political value, but effectively, in terms of political groups that need your royal approval to implement policies, it has no real basis. As there are several discussions in Europe about maintaining the monarchy, there must be questions after his death. But I don’t think that’s enough to promote change.”