Whenever insurance adviser Alexandra Strømmen (27) is in Oslo, she takes a look at the royal palaces. There’s a chance she’s one of the members of the kongefamilies encounters, she knows: she has already caught a glimpse of the king and queen standing on a balcony. “That’s what I like about them: you could address them like that,” she tells by telephone from her hometown of Trondheim.
It never came to that. But because the royals look approachable, Strømmen feels like she knows them personally, she says – from King and Queen Harald and Sonja (both 84) to Crown Prince Haakon and his wife Mette-Marit (both 48) and the renegade Princess Märtha. Louise (50), who lives in the US with a man who has declared himself a shaman. “Whenever something is written about them in the newspaper, it feels like I know them.”
This week King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima are visiting Harald and Sonja. Willem-Alexander told Norwegian journalists visiting The Hague last week that the families are not only good friends and go on holiday together, but also that he talks with Harald about the interpretation of the monarchy and that the courts learn from each other. .
The Norwegian royal family is very popular, even republicans agree. Norway is “the most open monarchy” in the world with “a human king,” says journalist Harald Stanghelle, Republican and author of a book for which he interviewed King Harald several times. That is what the Norwegians value according to him.
Stanghelle tells by telephone: “Harald has a good eye for other people’s problems and invites people to talk about it. Children who have been abused or drug addicts.” He is also open about his own problems. Stanghelle: “The king speaks about the cancer from which he suffered and about his ex-son-in-law who committed suicide.” When he underwent heart surgery last year, Crown Prince Haakon informed the media about his father’s health, not palace spokesmen.
Family having breakfast
Royal House reporter Kristi Marie Skrede, of the public broadcaster NRK, also got personal insights. For a portrait of Mette-Marit, she visited the princely family several times and filmed her during breakfast. The princess suffers from a lung disease, and she spoke at length about it. Skrede was surprised in The Hague about the fact that Willem-Alexander should not be quoted. The reason is that the prime minister is ministerially responsible for what the king says and does. This rule does not apply in Norway.
But with the Konge families it is „openness as long as they are themselves in control are,” says Skrede. None of the relatives wanted to answer questions about whose luxury yacht the family spent a summer week on.
But even then, as with parliamentary questions about the costs of the royal family, there is never strong criticism. If there is criticism, it comes from conservative Christian or far-right corner. King Harald emphasizes the importance of an inclusive society, with room for same-sex marriage and immigrants, and is very outspoken about this. An “old man, but a modern king,” says Skrede.
Asylum seekers
Harald emphasized in a speech in 2016, just after the arrival of asylum seekers sparked heated debate that his “own grandparents were from Denmark and England.”
Haakon VII was the second son of the king of Denmark. When Norway became independent from Sweden in 1905, a king was sought. Journalist Stanghelle recalls: “Many people in the independence movement were Republicans. They thought that many Norwegians would find it too revolutionary to become a republic too. The prince was willing to become king, provided the Norwegians agreed.” A referendum was held: 80 percent said ‘yes’. Stanghelle: “I know few kings elected by the people.” In 2017, 81 percent of the Norwegians still support the monarchy.
The secret behind its popularity, according to Per Hansen of The Norwegian Republican Association, is that the family members in egalitarian Norwegian society pretend to be ordinary people. One of the most famous photos of Harald’s father, Olav V, when he bought a ticket for the metro during the 1973 oil crisis.
“They just walk down the street, our queen makes trekking through nature with a backpack and sleeps in simple mountain huts. We know about the crown prince that he partied a lot,” Hansen says by telephone. “This is how they send out the signal that they are no better than us – even though everyone knows that they are of course different.”
Hansen: “Norwegians don’t like the stiffness you see in other royal families.” According to him, a stiff upper lip in Norway soon regarded as arrogance. “Our society is not as class oriented as the British, we don’t like it when celebrities put themselves above the people or demand special treatment. Our royal family does that very well,” says Hansen. Although as a republican he also sees the disadvantage of this: the popularity of the individual members maintains the system that he so hated.
Alexandra Strømmen will soon be traveling to Oslo again, to do Christmas shopping with a friend. And as usual, she visits the palaces, hoping to catch another royal glimpse. Then, hesitantly, “You’re not going to write anything negative about them, are you?”
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