Is there a country where a member of the royal family can participate in politics and run as a candidate in elections?
March 25, 2025
Is there a country where a member of the royal family can participate in politics and run as a candidate in elections?
20 comments
Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena Fürst zu Schwarzenberg was a minister of foreign affeirs in Czechia and Tomáš Zachariáš Josef Maria Děpolt Rudolf Kazimír Hostislav duke of Czernin is a Senator.
Technically in the UK anyone who isn’t the actual monarch can – including the Prince of Wales. But it wouldn’t go down well with either the establishment or the general public.
In Bulgaria Tsar Simeon ran for and was elected for prime minister in the early 2000s but he had to formally abandon his claim to the throne.
I wouldn’t think so outside of mitigating circumstances (e.g getting kicked out of the royal family), due to most being constitutional monarchies with strong separation of powers. The only exception I could think of would be Bulgaria but that is with big clauses on it. Bulgaria’s last king ran for prime minister and won in the early 2000s, of course Bulgaria no longer had a monarchy by then.
Then of course you also have other technicalities like Germany having tons of nobility but that status no longer really being relevant. Countries that let foreign born citizens run for certain offices and so on.
They can if a country is a republic. Then they have the rights just as any other citizen. In constitutial monarchies – they have their own functions already.
They probably can. They have the right to vote like anyone else but the king, his wife and adult kids choose not to exercise it because they’re supposed to be neutral and don’t want speculation about what party they vote for. And if they have active voting rights I don’t see why they wouldn’t have passive voting rights. Because AFAIK the only people ineligible to be elected are people who also don’t have the right to vote.
Short answer; most constitutions ban the monarch and in extension the royal family from ever interfering with the judicial or legislative branch as they are the head of the executive branch of power. Low level positions like school district members are likely to not be tested in a court of law, but a council member positions likely would. It is up to the courts to decide if a monarch cross the line between their executive power into the legislative branch from which they are banned to influence at all.
Political parties aim to influence legislative power and ultimately sit with the executive power in any country with parliamentarism (most). Any high member of the executive branch may not influence any of the other branches of power.
There is a debate about how the executive power and legislative power has grown together the past century and a growth in the importance of democratic rights. After all the government arise from the parliament. Perhaps the democratic rights of the royal family have such a high standing on modern times that a judge would rule even royals can have political positions. But I see no royals testing this.
Archiduke Otto von Habsburg Lorraine was a member of European Parliament, representing Austria. He was the son of the last Emperor
They can in Denmark, but it would not happen. There is allready enough trouble that the crownprince is a f-ck fan
The royal family has no political power by title. But I don’t think there’s anything de jure that prevents or deprives them of the political right that all citizens have.
However, the royal family tend to keep themselves out of the political sphere – to the extent that they don’t even vote – because it might be seen as controversial.
EDIT: I attempted some additional research. While I cannot find anything in the Foundational Laws that says absolutely no (other than the unsourced opinion of ChatGPT), it would be awkward and paradoxical as the monarch is the head of state. The problem I have is that such restrictions would most likely be inferred, not written.
We are not a monarchy anymore so we don’t have any royal family. There’s the descendents of the last royal family but they are citizens like any other so they can be politically active.
We even have a monarchic party. Its an irrelevant political force.
Think the constitution only say something about the king here. Hence all his relatives can in theory do as they want.
Legally, Swedish royals can vote or run for office. The current monarch can’t because he’s head of state, and the head of state can’t simultaneously hold another office, but that’s legally just a restriction on holding two offices – the king could probably (based on a simple interpretation of the law) run for parliament, then abdicate the throne if elected and take office as a member of the parliament.
In practice, it’s pretty much impossible. The royal family, by convention, avoids political statements and doesn’t vote. They tend to catch criticism if anything remotely political is said, so if a member of the royal family ran for office, that would definitely cause backlash. Possibly enough backlash to seriously consider abolishing the monarchy – the Swedish parliament has for years had a majority against the monarchy, it’s just not a question that’s actively pursued in politics, again by convention.
We don’t have royal family since 16th century when Jagiellons got extinct. When they got extinct our monarchy started to be elective one (technically even earlier, it’s just the whole monarchy business stayed within one family). I don’t know if any descendants of, say, Zygmunt Waza or Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki are still around but if they do they absolutely can participate in politics like any other citizen.
The (co) Prince of Andorra is currently the President of France!
>!Ok, this isn’t what OP was asking for, as one of the co-princes of Andorra is by definition the President of France!<
We basically got rid of the royal families who ruled France in the 19th century. There was a law from 1886 who banned the royal families (Orléans, Bourbon and Bonaparte). The law was partially lifted in 1950, and completely in 2011. So now they could participate. But most of them are not that famous and nobody cares about them.
If they renounce their claims they are normal civilians, so they could in theory in Belgium. But nobody from the Dutch royal family can do it.
Yes, there are countries where members of the royal family can participate in politics and run for elections. One example is Thailand, where Princess Ubolratana announced her candidacy for prime minister in 2019, although her candidacy was eventually rejected. Another example is Jordan, where members of the royal family can participate in politics and hold government positions if they wish. In other countries with constitutional monarchies, royal family members typically remain neutral in politics.
Just like with any other republic, the royal family is just folks now. As far as I know none of them has hungarian citizenship, so the most they could do is to vote on local/municipal elections.
A lot of us are republics with former royal families.
The Greek former royal family had issues with the state, because they kept refusing to adopt a surname, a requirement for Greek citizens. They finally adopted a controversial one (I think it’s “Of Greece”). They’re just regular citizens now. AFAIK, there’s nothing legally stopping them from running for office.
20 comments
Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena Fürst zu Schwarzenberg was a minister of foreign affeirs in Czechia and Tomáš Zachariáš Josef Maria Děpolt Rudolf Kazimír Hostislav duke of Czernin is a Senator.
Technically in the UK anyone who isn’t the actual monarch can – including the Prince of Wales. But it wouldn’t go down well with either the establishment or the general public.
In Bulgaria Tsar Simeon ran for and was elected for prime minister in the early 2000s but he had to formally abandon his claim to the throne.
I wouldn’t think so outside of mitigating circumstances (e.g getting kicked out of the royal family), due to most being constitutional monarchies with strong separation of powers. The only exception I could think of would be Bulgaria but that is with big clauses on it. Bulgaria’s last king ran for prime minister and won in the early 2000s, of course Bulgaria no longer had a monarchy by then.
Then of course you also have other technicalities like Germany having tons of nobility but that status no longer really being relevant. Countries that let foreign born citizens run for certain offices and so on.
They can if a country is a republic. Then they have the rights just as any other citizen. In constitutial monarchies – they have their own functions already.
They probably can. They have the right to vote like anyone else but the king, his wife and adult kids choose not to exercise it because they’re supposed to be neutral and don’t want speculation about what party they vote for. And if they have active voting rights I don’t see why they wouldn’t have passive voting rights. Because AFAIK the only people ineligible to be elected are people who also don’t have the right to vote.
Short answer; most constitutions ban the monarch and in extension the royal family from ever interfering with the judicial or legislative branch as they are the head of the executive branch of power. Low level positions like school district members are likely to not be tested in a court of law, but a council member positions likely would. It is up to the courts to decide if a monarch cross the line between their executive power into the legislative branch from which they are banned to influence at all.
Political parties aim to influence legislative power and ultimately sit with the executive power in any country with parliamentarism (most). Any high member of the executive branch may not influence any of the other branches of power.
There is a debate about how the executive power and legislative power has grown together the past century and a growth in the importance of democratic rights. After all the government arise from the parliament. Perhaps the democratic rights of the royal family have such a high standing on modern times that a judge would rule even royals can have political positions. But I see no royals testing this.
Archiduke Otto von Habsburg Lorraine was a member of European Parliament, representing Austria. He was the son of the last Emperor
They can in Denmark, but it would not happen. There is allready enough trouble that the crownprince is a f-ck fan
The royal family has no political power by title. But I don’t think there’s anything de jure that prevents or deprives them of the political right that all citizens have.
However, the royal family tend to keep themselves out of the political sphere – to the extent that they don’t even vote – because it might be seen as controversial.
EDIT: I attempted some additional research. While I cannot find anything in the Foundational Laws that says absolutely no (other than the unsourced opinion of ChatGPT), it would be awkward and paradoxical as the monarch is the head of state. The problem I have is that such restrictions would most likely be inferred, not written.
We are not a monarchy anymore so we don’t have any royal family. There’s the descendents of the last royal family but they are citizens like any other so they can be politically active.
We even have a monarchic party. Its an irrelevant political force.
Think the constitution only say something about the king here. Hence all his relatives can in theory do as they want.
Legally, Swedish royals can vote or run for office. The current monarch can’t because he’s head of state, and the head of state can’t simultaneously hold another office, but that’s legally just a restriction on holding two offices – the king could probably (based on a simple interpretation of the law) run for parliament, then abdicate the throne if elected and take office as a member of the parliament.
In practice, it’s pretty much impossible. The royal family, by convention, avoids political statements and doesn’t vote. They tend to catch criticism if anything remotely political is said, so if a member of the royal family ran for office, that would definitely cause backlash. Possibly enough backlash to seriously consider abolishing the monarchy – the Swedish parliament has for years had a majority against the monarchy, it’s just not a question that’s actively pursued in politics, again by convention.
We don’t have royal family since 16th century when Jagiellons got extinct. When they got extinct our monarchy started to be elective one (technically even earlier, it’s just the whole monarchy business stayed within one family). I don’t know if any descendants of, say, Zygmunt Waza or Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki are still around but if they do they absolutely can participate in politics like any other citizen.
The (co) Prince of Andorra is currently the President of France!
>!Ok, this isn’t what OP was asking for, as one of the co-princes of Andorra is by definition the President of France!<
We basically got rid of the royal families who ruled France in the 19th century. There was a law from 1886 who banned the royal families (Orléans, Bourbon and Bonaparte). The law was partially lifted in 1950, and completely in 2011. So now they could participate. But most of them are not that famous and nobody cares about them.
If they renounce their claims they are normal civilians, so they could in theory in Belgium. But nobody from the Dutch royal family can do it.
Yes, there are countries where members of the royal family can participate in politics and run for elections. One example is Thailand, where Princess Ubolratana announced her candidacy for prime minister in 2019, although her candidacy was eventually rejected. Another example is Jordan, where members of the royal family can participate in politics and hold government positions if they wish. In other countries with constitutional monarchies, royal family members typically remain neutral in politics.
Just like with any other republic, the royal family is just folks now. As far as I know none of them has hungarian citizenship, so the most they could do is to vote on local/municipal elections.
A lot of us are republics with former royal families.
The Greek former royal family had issues with the state, because they kept refusing to adopt a surname, a requirement for Greek citizens. They finally adopted a controversial one (I think it’s “Of Greece”). They’re just regular citizens now. AFAIK, there’s nothing legally stopping them from running for office.