Luxembourg crowns a new grand duke after the former grand duke abdicates

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LUXEMBOURG (AP) — Grand Duke Guillaume swore an oath to ascend to the throne of Luxembourg on Friday in a traditional ceremony attended by royals and European heads of state.

Flanked by his wife, the new Grand Duchess Stéphanie, Grand Duke Guillaume, 43, swore the oath in Luxembourg's parliament and took the throne.

“I will live the life of my people, from whom I do not want to be separated by any barrier. I will share their joys and sufferings,” Guillaume said, quoting a 1919 speech by one of his predecessors, the Grand Duchess Charlotte, in his first address to the nation. He drew a parallel between the carnage of World War I and geopolitical tensions today.

“A symbol of the principles of freedom and unity enshrined in our Constitution, the monarchy has remained — then as now — a constant point of reference and a steadfast support in times of crisis. In this sense, the oath I have just taken on the Constitution marks a significant institutional milestone for our country.”

Grand Duke Guillaume, 43, takes over from his father Henri, 70, who had served for 25 years in the largely symbolic role.

Crowds gathered outside the yellow stone and ornate turrets of the palace. Some had their faces painted in the Luxembourg flag: red, white and light blue — the same color of gown worn by the new Grand Duchess, Belgian-born Stéphanie.

Nefeni Neocleousk, 18, wore a Luxembourgish flag across her shoulders and wished the grand duke well in the Luxembourgish language.

“Maach dat gudd! Du packs dat!" she said, which means “Do it well, you will succeed” in English.

The new grand duke will shortly greet the public from a balcony of the Grand Ducal Palace with the royal family at his side, including his sons, 5-year-old Charles and 2-year-old François.

Royals from the Netherlands and Belgium attended the ceremonies. Later on Friday, the new grand duke will host an evening gala for guests including French President Emmanuel Macron and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

He is Luxembourg’s seventh grand duke since 1890, when the modern monarchy was established. On Saturday and Sunday he will tour his new realm, a tiny duchy — the size of Rhode Island — of 700,000 citizens in the heart of Europe.

Over the weekend, Guillaume will make a traditional tour of the nation that will end with a Sunday Mass with Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich at the Catholic Notre-Dame de Luxembourg cathedral.

An official supplier to the Royal Court, Lea Lister, 70, dropped off roughly 200 madeleines, a small shell-shaped sponge cake, for staff at the ceremonies. She’s selling commemorative boxes of the cakes with Guillaume and Stéphanie designed to look like “a romantic fairytale” reflective of Luxembourg’s picturesque castles and forests.

When Guillaume was 13, she began teaching him to cook dishes like Bouneschlupp, a hearty green bean and ham soup.

Sitting beneath portraits of the French novelist Marcel Proust and a Grand Duke Henri, she said Guillaume’s kindness and empathy will do him well as sovereign — and he’ll be able to feed the family.

“You can feel that he is the son of a couple of parents who loved each other very much,” she said, of Guillaume. “He’s very emotive, very sensitive. So I love that and I think he will be a beautiful Grand Duke for us.”

Cleaved from part of what are now France, Belgium and Germany in the 17th and 19th centuries, the small nation is a parliamentary democracy with the grand duke as head of state, akin to King Charles in the United Kingdom or King Philippe in Belgium. Roughly 700,000 citizens speak a mix of Luxembourgish, a Germanic language, and French and German in public life. It is the world’s last remaining grand duchy.

One of the European Union’s smallest nations and its richest per capita, Luxembourg is a financial powerhouse that hosts important EU institutions like the European Court of Justice and the European Investment Bank. The grand duchy is home to many of the banks in the eurozone, reinsurance companies and managers of hedge funds and money markets.

Guillaume will be Luxembourg’s seventh grand duke since 1890, when the modern monarchy was established. Across the duchy, his photo will replace that of his father’s. His monogram, symmetrical golden “G” letters below a crown, will also be added to the uniforms of the army, the police, emergency services, the prison service and customs.

Guillaume, like Henri, was educated in France, Switzerland and at the United Kingdom’s military academy, Sandhurst. Guillaume then worked for Belgian, German and Spanish firms.

Christoph Brüll, a historian and professor at the University of Luxembourg, said Guillaume will be stepping into a very traditional role.

“His margin of maneuver or right to action is zero. So the only power he has is then the power of speech or words. For the rest, the grand duke will remain a political symbol,” he said.