The Abdication of Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia
Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia will abdicate in favor of his daughter Vittoria, who is 19 years old and carries the title of Princess of Carignano (as well as, among others, Marquise of Ivrea). It was she who, in 2020, was included by her grandfather Vittorio Emanuele in the line of succession and also invested with the title of heir to the throne of Italy. A throne that no longer exists, but which continues to be discussed (even among the former royals about who is the true heir to the throne).
Modernizing the Salic Law
The intention to abdicate in favor of his daughter was announced by Emanuele Filiberto himself, 51 years old, in an interview with Corriere Torino, explaining that he is sure that his daughter “will do better than me. It was my father who made this decision which I find very just and modern”. And labeling the Salic Law (which grants the crown only to male children, ed.) as “anachronistic” and “outdated”, he emphasizes how in Europe “there will soon be more queens than kings. Everyone is realizing it, even if a bit late, that the intelligence and sensitivity of women in charge can be wonderful”.
The Role of Women in the House of Savoy
The prince then explains that he is a feminist, because “men have nothing more, if anything less”, and clarifies that in the house of Savoy women have always had a preeminent role, from Queen Margherita who “mondanized the monarchy” to Queen Elena “a woman of great charity” who during the war “transformed the rooms of the Quirinale into a military hospital”. To arrive at his mother, Marina Doria, a woman of “great modernity”, who was “world champion of water skiing and who, when we were in exile, represented us excellently”. And like the ancestors of the house, even the daughter Vittoria (whose full name is Vittoria Cristina Adelaide Chiara Maria di Savoia) is described by her father as a woman up to the task that will be entrusted to her with the abdication. And he tells that she studies Art History and Political Science in Great Britain, and that she is “sensitive and intelligent, open”. Vittoria, he emphasizes, “loves human contact, worries about what she sees around her”. And like her great-grandmother Elena, who served as a Red Cross nurse after the Messina earthquake, she too “as soon as the War broke out in Ukraine, she immediately left with the Red Cross to bring aid”. In short, reveals Emanuele Filiberto, “it will be more women of the House of Savoy who will remain in History than men”. So much so that for him the crown was never even a distant dream: as a child he did not think of becoming either a prince or a king, but “I wanted to be an astronaut”. While the unrealizable dream was that of Italy: “I grew up with a great desire to go there. Thanks be to God it happened in 2002”.
