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Republican sentiments may be simmering, but that's the week when Australia has fallen in love with Prince Harry and Meghan.
This certainly helped a few hours after landing in Sydney, the Kensington Palace announced that the Duchess of Sussex was pregnant, as if she had saved it as a gift to the Australian public. (Or at least a gift to the newspaper editors, who responded enthusiastically: "Heir Dinkum!", Writes the Murdoch newspaper in Sydney, the Daily Telegraph.)
Even in the absence of the news at the opportune moment, the Duke and Duchess seem to have taken the measures that are required during their week in Australia, starting a 16-day tour that also includes the New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga.
They shook hands, hugged their babies and spent so much time chatting with the audience that they set their own schedule. Harry made jokes about the bear releases with the zoo keepers, while Meghan twinkled and smiled in response to congratulations for her pregnancy.
When the couple arrived on Wednesday in the regional town of Dubbo, Harry even let a young boy hug him, then draw his beard and stroke his head, while Meghan brought a banana bread allegedly homemade in the rural town to thank a local couple whose farm they visited. The Duke and Duchess are typical examples of what you should do when you arrive in a country governed by your family – or at least for the moment, anyway.
A survey conducted earlier this year found that 52% of the country claimed that Australia was becoming a republic, compared to only 22%. In this survey, 67% of respondents also said that their opinion of Australia's future as a republic or otherwise was unaffected by information on royal weddings or infants. The leader of the federal opposition, Bill Shorten, has promised that he will be elected next year, he will hold another referendum sometime in his first year.
Yet the crowds loved it. This helps that Harry is not likely to ever sit on the throne and so there is not the same discomfort caused by the visit of Charles or William; the feeling that the son of the owner comes to check the place before they take over from mom.
The only thing that seemed not to go as expected is the weather, alternately rainy, windy and wet. But even here, Harry and Meghan seem to have a magic touch, given the drought that strikes large tracts of the country. Upon their arrival in Dubbo, in the heart of the agricultural region of New South Wales, the sky opened and torrential rain carried off the picnic at Victoria Park.
In any other royal visit, such a rain would have been a heavy blow, but falling in the middle of one of the worst droughts that the state has ever faced has become a motive festive. The duke and the duchess seemed to have brought the rain, a better gift than the banana bread.
Their visit contributed to the success of William and Kate's successful visit in 2014, when Prince George, when he was a baby in the arms, was nicknamed "George the Republic killer" on television. As for the visit of Prince Charles and Camilla earlier this year for the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, this visit was largely ignored. At his public event in Brisbane, Charles drew just one-tenth of the 45,000 people in the Queensland capital to see the queen seven years earlier.
But Harry and Meghan were still the royals that would resonate the most in Australia. Younger, fresher, less buttoned and more willing to break protocol, they have a more salable charm – let's say more Australian -.
Kamil Karamali
(@KamilKaramali)Prince Harry partied for a fan in Australia, making her cry with excitement. #RoyalTourAustralia #royalvisitAUS pic.twitter.com/WrmdddU0XU
It's hard to imagine Kate loosing her designer shoes to walk barefoot on Bondi Beach, as Meghan did on Friday. Indeed, when the Duchess of Cambridge visited Manly Beach in Sydney in 2014, the situation was resolutely compensated. And William would not have seemed as comfortable as Harry, surrounded by surfers wearing gold leggings, flower crowns, neon bikinis and face paint.
Whenever they broke the rules during this visit – Harry hugging a teenager in Melbourne who immediately burst into tears, telling himself more astonished to find that she was so surprised because she knew that the hugs did not appear in the royal manual – was commented on Australian television. Even Harry's arrogant past embodies him in a country that prides itself on being a "larrikins," a man who takes rules and pisses.
It's also helpful that Harry's reason for being here – the opening of the Invictus Games, in which sick and injured duty men participate in various sports – is undoubtedly commendable, making this trip more than just a simple one. public relations exercise.
But do not get me wrong, this trip is also an exercise of this kind, and it has been an incredible success.
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