Thanks, Eya.
Yes, the media today is buzzing with speculations at what she is going to say tonight.
It's almost a certainty that PH, and his condition, will be mentioned one way or another. Perhaps also in regards to where he is going to be laid to rest.
Another thing that is very much speculated on is that she will announce that she is going to cut down on her workload, i.e. de facto retire in anything but name.
One of the often quoted royal commentators has gone so far as to sat that in his opinion the possibility of QMII announcing her abdication next year, has gone from most unlikely, to 50/50!
The timing for that being considered the best possible.
Another prominent commentator says: No way.
But let's have a look at the New Year speeches.
https://jyllands-posten.dk/debat/kronik/ECE10158622/dronningens-nytaarstale-i-europaeisk-perspektiv/
The royal historian, Lars Hovbakke Sørensen, has had a look at the New Year speeches in DK as well as other European countries and compared their style and contents.
In Denmark the tradition started at the first New Year after the German occupation, i.e. 1st January 1941. The purpose then was very much to calm the population in a time of trouble.
It has continued ever since. From 1958 also on TV.
Today the New Year speech is held on the 31st December, while the PM deliver his/her speech on the 1st January. Which is pretty much also a kind "state of the nation" speech. As well as outlying the government's ambition for the coming year.
The Danish New Year speeches is very much in the form of a personalized address from the Monarch and the royal family to the nation, commenting very much on events in the year that is passed and adding personal observations and opinions on general matters that are not too political. As well as informing the public about upcoming events within the DRF.
QMII has very much defined that style, which is of course why some 50-60 % of the population is watching, year after year.
Sweden also has a tradition for New Year speeches, beginning on the wireless from the 1930's. But not every year and not always by the king, and these speeches were mainly aimed at Swedes abroad. And the speeches there are given in connection with Christmas.
No speeches were made at all during WWII, because Sweden, to put it mildly, was in a very precarious situation! So it was presumably wisest if the king didn't say anything at all.
It was only in 1973 that the Christmas speeches became an annual tradition.
The reason very much being that Sweden was led by Social Democrat governments from 1936-1976, governments that were much more republican than in Denmark and Norway.
The first New Year speech in Norway was in 1936. But it was WWII that cemented the tradition, when the King broadcast his New Year speeches from his exile in Britain. The King being a very important symbol for the Norwegians!
After WWII the King and the Crown Prince took turns giving the speech, but from 1957 it was only the King who gave the speech. From 1960 also on TV.
In Britain the tradition started in 1932, with a brief Christmas greeting on the radio. But in contrast to Scandinavia the speeches by the British monarch remained short and to this day mainly in the form of a general greeting, with only in more recent decades including more personal details.
The reason for that is that the British Monarch is also the monarch for a number of Commonwealth countries and as such has to tread more carefully.
It's different in the Benelux countries of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Here the monarchs and princes also give a Christmas address. But these are much more politically specific. i.e. commenting on current political issues. In particular European issues.
That is in stark contrast to the Nordic countries where the monarchs are obliged to be as politically neutral as possible.
