Across the Channel, the mystery still hangs. For the moment, neither the government nor the representatives of the royal family have communicated on the total cost of the coronation of King Charles III, which will take place in London this Saturday, May 6. The festivities will continue until Monday. On the side of the British media, speculation is rife as to the envelope granted to the future sovereign. Media like the BBC or the Guardian put forward a range of 50 to 100 million pounds.
The Daily Mirror, meanwhile, estimates that the cost of the event could exceed £250 million, adding to the total sum the price of the impressive security apparatus put in place. “Security alone will be £150million, possibly more. It’s a crazy sum, but it’s one of the biggest public events in recent history,” says a member of the administration in the columns of the English tabloid.
A state-sponsored coronation
The cost of the event, baptized with the code name “Operation Golden Orb” within the British monarchy, is likely to reach heights because of a scale rarely reached. The coronation will last three days, including a public holiday decreed for the occasion. Tens of thousands of people will gather around the journey that Charles and his wife Camilla will make between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. The ceremony will be followed by a concert with the program Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, or the group Take That.
The palace nevertheless made it known that efforts would be made to hold the event. “Savings were found in key areas – for example by reusing many elements for the ceremony, rather than ordering new ones,” the palace spokesman told AFP.
Since the king’s coronation is considered a state event, it is entirely financed from public funds. A situation far from satisfying all the British. A survey published by the Yougov Institute and taken up by the BBC reveals that 51% of them believe that the coronation should not be borne by the taxpayer. A feeling that can be explained by the high inflation affecting the United Kingdom, around 10% in recent months. Since the beginning of the year, the country has been subjected to a major wave of social movements, with demonstrators marching against the rise in the prices of basic necessities.
Significant fallout
The coronation of Charles’s mother, Elizabeth II, on June 2, 1953, cost the English treasury a total of £1.57 million. That would be around £47m today. But at the time, the sum represented about 0.009% of the country’s gross domestic product. Today, 100 million pounds, the high range evoked by the press, would be equivalent to around 0.004% of GDP. A proportional cost about twice as low for the country, therefore.
The coronation promises to be expensive, but the event should also have significant economic benefits. In London, in particular, 250,000 tourists are expected over the weekend. According to figures from the Center for Retail Research, which produces data on the English economy, 1.4 billion pounds could be spent on the sidelines of the event. English pubs will even have an exceptional exemption, since they will be authorized to close their doors two hours later throughout the weekend. A decision that should bring 136 million euros to the drinking establishments of the country.
