Cancer stricken King Charles faces new challenge as sons and brother remain unbothered

When King Charles was crowned in a lavish ceremony in May 2023,  Britain's main anti-monarchist movement gathered along the procession route. 

Republic, a group founded in 1983 that campaigns for an elected head of state, has already announced its plans for 2025.

The  group is asking it's supporters to pledge to major events this year. "The two pillars of Republic's campaign in 2025 will showcase the movement and challenge the monarchy. Make a difference," said a statement by the group.

"Aimed at turbo-charging the campaign to end the monarchy and create a more democratic Britain, Republic Day and the Trooping the Colour protest will be bigger, better and louder in 2025."

The events include Republic Day 2025 on May 10th and the Trooping the Colour Protest on June 14th.

The anti-monarchy group's supporters booed King Charles  when they gathered opposite the UK parliament July last year,  ahead of the first state opening of parliament under the new Labour government.

According to YouGov, in 2012, 73% of the public said the monarchy was good for Britain, but that figure has dropped now to 53%.

The British monarchy traces its history back to William the Conqueror who invaded England in 1066, though royals ruled the patchwork of kingdoms which stretched across what became England, Scotland and Wales for centuries before that.

While the monarchy has gradually ceded power to parliament over the centuries, the king or queen still plays a significant, if almost entirely symbolic, role in British life such as the appointment of prime ministers and the judicial system.

Apart from the 11-year republic from 1649 following the end of the English civil war and the execution of Charles I, support for ending the British monarchy has rarely attracted significant popular support.

Anti-monarchy protests are relatively small, and polls show the majority of Britons still want a royal family.

The anti-monarchists protests are not King Charles' only headache as he is already faced with controversies around his sons and younger brother Prince Andrew.

While his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, have shown no interest in ending their rift, his brother, Prince Andrew, recently got himself caught in yet another controversy involving an alleged Chinese spy.