Republican protesters hold demonstration on King’s coronation anniversary

Republic Day

Republican protesters in Trafalgar Square shouted “abdicate, abdicate” ahead of the first anniversary of the King’s coronation as tourists milled around and watched the crowd.

Two large yellow banners were hung in front of the National Gallery in central London that read “abolish the monarchy” and “change country for good”.

Around a hundred people wearing yellow gathered on the sunny Sunday for the protest organised by anti-monarchy group Republic, in its first “Republic Day”.

The organisation’s CEO Graham Smith said from the stage: “We will have Republic Days every year on the eve of the coronation.”

Mr Smith and other Republic members were arrested for taking part in a pre-agreed protest on the King’s coronation last year and were later told no further action would be taken.

Subsequently he launched legal action against the Metropolitan Police and Mr Smith told the crowd it is ongoing.

He said: “We need to challenge the monarchy and the royals because it is a corrupt institution – they are a lazy people, they have not earned their position and they need to be kicked out.”

He continued: “We want a constitution and a system and a democracy that actually celebrates our very best principles and values.

“This won’t just be a matter of principle, it will change the way we govern ourselves and therefore change the society and the way that we see ourselves not as subjects, but as citizens.

“We are forced to compromise our values and principles; we talk about corruption in politics, we talk about the abuse of public life.

“We criticise MPs for spending thousands of pounds on second homes, we criticise Angela Rayner for not spending £1,500 on taxes she should have paid, but we don’t criticise (Prince) William for spending £4.5 million of our money on doing up not his second home, or his third home, but his fourth.”

As bystanders took photos beside the Trafalgar Square fountains and sat on the steps outside the National Gallery, he said: “People who support this stupid institution say that without it we would be a dull country, we wouldn’t be able to bring tourists in.

“As if we rely on this one tedious family to bring people in; that we don’t have the creativity, the ingenuity, the genius and the brilliance to bring all these people in anyway.

“That we can’t thrive economically and socially and politically without Charles dressing up in ridiculous uniforms and sitting on a ridiculous throne.”

He added that “we struggle to deal with our legacy of slavery” and that “a part of that reason is because we don’t point the finger at our royal family who from the days of (King) James I were absolutely instrumental in promoting, funding, sponsoring and investing in the slave trade.

“These people are absolutely at the heart of the slave trade and empire and people are loath to look at that legacy.”

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