Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday that out of respect for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96, he did not yet intend to hold a referendum on abolishing the monarchy in his country , DPA and Agerpres agencies report.

Now is the time to pay tribute to the late monarch and not analyze “questions about our Constitution,” Albanese told Britain’s Sky News.

Rather, he said, it is time to show our admiration for the services the Queen has rendered to “Australia, the Commonwealth and the world”.

The Prime Minister of Australia plans to travel to London to attend the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on September 19.

Every Australian should have a chance to become head of state, Albanese said

Albanese repeatedly mentioned that he intended to turn Australia into a republic. Every Australian should have a chance to become head of state, he said.

The Queen’s death has fueled debate about the country’s status. In 1999, the majority of Australians (55%) voted in a referendum to retain the monarchy as a form of government.

Australia is not the only country in the Commonwealth (the Commonwealth of Nations, an intergovernmental organization made up of 53 independent member states that were originally part, with some exceptions, of the British Empire – no) to consider changing the Constitution.

On November 30, 2021, the island state of Barbados became a republic, and criticism of the British monarchy is intensifying among the Caribbean states, the DPA agency notes.

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