Silvia: every man must take responsibility

Queen Silvia has stepped into the charged Swedish debate surrounding violence against women. The Queen was said in a recent article to hold very conservative views, but this week it seemed that her views are closer to those of firebrand former Left Party leader Gudrun Schyman than some might expect.

• Republicans call for elk to dethrone cash king (16 Mar 10)
• SVT 'cheering on the monarchy' (24 Feb 10)
• Why deny a princess her fairytale? Republicans and the royal weddings (15 Feb 10)

Silvia, in an interview with Swedish Radio, was asked for her views on whether men should take collective responsibility for violence against women. This has been a hot political question ever since Schyman proposed a general tax on men to cover the cost of violence against women. Aftonbladet noted that the Queen deliberately avoided echoing Schyman’s call for men to take “collective responsibility” for the problem. Still, she came pretty close:

“I think that every man has responsibility. Maybe one can talk about collective responsibility, but I think that every individual has responsibility,” Silvia told the P4 radio station.

Silvia’s son, Prince Carl Philip, was showing signs of following in his mother’s footsteps this week when he revealed a diary that he has designed for the World Childhood Foundation, which was founded be the Queen.

The diary was produced as part of the prince’s work experience at the Storåkers McCann advertising agency, which forms part of his course in graphic design at Forsbergs College in Stockholm.

Despite the best efforts of all concerned to make out that the prince look like any other design student, few of Carl Philip’s contemporaries can have such good contacts: the prince’s diary featured pictures of a raft of Swedish celebrities, including Queen Silvia herself, and was presented to the Queen at a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Sources: Aftonbladet, SR