King Frederik Begins His First Foreign Trip With an Honor Guard and Dinner Hosted By a Danish Actress

On Wednesday, King Frederik X made his first trip out of Denmark since his accession to the throne earlier this month, beginning a three-day visit to Poland focused on promoting the nation’s businesses and visiting NATO troops. Upon his arrival in Warsaw, he made a trip to a new history museum to celebrate a new promotional campaign to advertise Danish products. Then, the king visited the Presidential Palace, where President Andrzej Duda greeted him with a red carpet and honor guard. Frederik headed a delegation from Denmark’s cabinet that included Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard, and Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Jacob Jensen. 

The trip’s first day ended with a banquet dinner where the king was joined by Danish and Polish politicians, along with a few VIPs. The event was moderated by the Danish actress Gina Marchwinski, who has a Polish background and speaks the language. On Monday, Marchwinski posted a video to her Instagram showing her at the Copenhagen store of designer Lasse Spangenberg, trying on dresses in preparation for the event. 

While the king is away, his son Crown Prince Christian will be filling in as regent, the palace confirmed to Danish newspaper Billed Bladet. Even though Christian is still completing his secondary school education at Ordrup Gymnasium in suburban Copenhagen, he was added to the list of regents when he became the crown prince at his father’s accession. As regent, Christian will have to attend state meetings and potentially sign legislation if necessary, historian Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen told the newspaper B.T.

The king traveled to Poland without his wife, Queen Mary, who made her own foreign excursion over the weekend to Germany, where she watched the European Championship match in men’s handball. Though the trip marks his first foreign travel since he was proclaimed the nation’s monarch on January 14, planning for the trip began before his mother Queen Margrethe II announced her decision to abdicate in her New Year’s speech so it is not being considered his first state visit. 

Last week, the Kongehuset explained that Mary would not join her husband in Poland. “In Denmark, there is a tradition that a new sovereign begins travel activity together with his or her spouse with visits to the neighboring countries as the first made,” the statement read. “Thus, the plan is that The King and HM The Queen will visit Sweden and Norway as the first such trips. The dates for these visits will follow as soon as possible.”