Last week’s royal wedding is being credited with rekindling the loyalty of New Zealand, the monarchy’s most distant realm.
A survey released today shows approval of the royal family has risen to 74 percent after the wedding, compared with 60 percent when the question was last asked in July 2002.
New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II represented by a Governor General.
And it’s now apparent that the Kiwis were well and truly caught up in wedding fever when about one million people lined the streets of London to share in the royal pomp and pageantry last week. Media estimates putting the global television audience at up to 2.4 billion.
Nz’s loose republican ambitions have taken a knock, with only 33 percent expecting the country to become a republic within the next 20 years from 58 percent in a 2005 survey.
The level of support for New Zealand becoming a republic is now just 24 percent. Other surveys have put support for a republic at about 33 percent.
Prince William has visited New Zealand twice in the 12 months, most recently in March when he represented the Queen at a memorial service for victims of the devastating Christchurch 7.3 magnitude earthquake.
