Today the republican leaning and always serious Dutch newspaper NRC has a column actually defending the Coronation:
"The UK, and probably the rest of the world, is expected to be glued to TV on Saturday, May 6th, to marvel at the Coronation of King Charles III. Republicans are already complaining that such a charade is no longer of this time. This, of course, remains a weak argument, for saying so actually implies that they are wrong, because it is an affirmation of the opposite.
If something is really "out of date", it does not need to be mentioned. For example, you rarely hear someone claim indignantly that the Roman Empire is really out of date. And Johannes Vermeer is not exactly of this time either, yet the exhibition in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is an unparalleled public favorite.
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In this age of social media, the power of clicks is an irrefutable answer to whether or not something is "out of date". The disconcerting fact that Prince Harry can continue his pampered lifestyle by hanging out the royal dirty laundry on the lucrative clotheslines of Oprah Winfrey, Netflix and Penguin Random House speaks volumes about the insatiable appetite of both the Facebook and Tiktok generations for "royal news". The problem of the monarchy does not seem to be that it is "out of date", but rather that it threatens to become a bit too modern.
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The constitutional role of a King is that of an impartial guardian of democracy. A certain distance is necessary for this. When a monarch becomes too approachable and thus becomes an ordinary media personality, he can be dragged into demagogic falsehoods, fake news and other forces that threaten democracy from within. In this light, the fact that a King is not democratically elected actually is the most important argument in favor of a hereditary monarchy.
[.....]
Rituals are an essential part of human life: birthdays, marriages, funerals, graduations and even greetings are generally held in high esteem. Without rituals, our lives would be more superficial, trivial, and colorless. Our lives are made up of a succession of customs and apparently they fulfill a deeply felt need.
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The British Coronation differs from other European Investitures in the venerable antiquity of the ritual and the intricate symbolic acts associated with it. For example, since the Ninth century, a new monarch has taken a seat on the Stone of Scone. The newly anointed monarch also receives, in addition to the various symbols of worldly and spiritual power, gold spurs that represent his chivalry, which, however, are no longer worn since a modernization in the 17th century, but are part of the regalia, and essential for the ceremony.
[.....]
For King Charles III it is to be hoped that he will be able to prove and sufficiently emphasize the value of all this ritual of state and to offer to the British people, feeling the pressure and burden of daily life, the comfort and meaning we have come to expect from ritual.
Source:
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2023/05/03/het-nut-van-de-poppenkast-is-symbolische-eenheid-a4163662
