Brazil’s surfer prince urges return to monarchy
He surfs, dances in carnivals and can sound more revolutionary than royal, but Prince Dom Joao de Orleans e Braganca is serious about restoring the monarchy to save Brazil.
As Latin America’s biggest country sinks under a tsunami of corruption, recession and political instability, Dom Joao told AFP that the royals — who were last in charge 126 years ago — could be part of a “radical” solution.
The prince, great- greatgrandson of the tragic final monarch, Emperor Pedro II, said Brazil should switch from a republic to a constitutional monarchy, along the lines of Britain or Sweden, where
Queen Elizabeth II and King Carl XVI Gustaf are essentially figureheads.
With a greying, trimmed beard, a neatly buttoned shirt, tan slacks and boat shoes worn without socks, the 62- year- old real estate developer and keen photographer said there would be no need for ornate palaces and long titles.
Brazil’s modern emperor would be modelled on the modest, so- called bicycle
The last monarch, Emperor Pedro II, was deposed on Nov. 15, 1889 in a military takeover. Pedro II went into exile in Europe where he died two years later. Since then, the royal family has sunk into obscurity and internal division.
monarchs of Scandinavia, he said — even if as a lifelong beach lover, he’d more likely be dubbed the surfer king.
“There’s an idea that the monarchy is pompous and I don’t disagree, but if you look at the modern ones, especially the Scandinavians, they are very simple heads of state,” he said. Dom Joao claims that royals would mean the return of an almost extinct type of public figure in today’s Brazil, where President Dilma Rousseff is in the throes of impeachment proceedings over her alleged fiddling of the national budget, while Congress is reeling from corruption scandals.