Norway's King Harald V dies at 89 after 35 years on the throne
The Royal House said the king died peacefully at Oslo University Hospital at 6.35am on Friday, having been admitted on 17 August with a blood infection. His son became King Haakon VIII at the moment of his death.
King Harald V of Norway died on Friday morning at the age of 89. The Royal House said he died peacefully at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet at 6.35am and took the rest of its website offline while it makes the necessary changes.
He had been in hospital since 17 August, treated for a bacterial infection in his blood. He was Europe’s oldest reigning monarch and had held the Norwegian throne since 1991.
The succession needs no ceremony
His son Haakon became king at the moment of his father’s death, taking the name Haakon VIII. A coronation is not part of the modern Norwegian arrangement.
Harald leaves Queen Sonja, his wife of 57 years, two children and five grandchildren. Their marriage in 1968 was a constitutional matter in itself. Sonja Haraldsen was not of noble birth, and it took nine years before Harald’s father gave his consent.
A monarch who raced yachts
Norway runs a deliberately informal monarchy, and Harald built much of his standing on it. He sailed for Norway at three Olympic Games, in Tokyo in 1964, Mexico City in 1968 and Munich in 1972.
He is remembered too for a speech in 2016, in which he described Norwegians as people whose families came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poland, Sweden and Somalia, and who believe in God, in Allah, in everything and in nothing. It travelled far beyond Norway.
Why a Norwegian succession reaches Portugal
Norway is not in the European Union, though it shares the single market through the European Economic Area, and its economic weight arrives here by routes most people never see. The country’s sovereign wealth fund is among the largest institutional investors on the continent, and this year it bought eight Spanish shopping centres from Sonae Sierra, in a deal run out of Lisbon.
None of that turns on who wears the crown. The Norwegian head of state does not govern, and continuity is the whole design. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
Image: UKOM / photo Nebojša Tejić, STA / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
