Norway’s King Harald dies at 89

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Norway’s King Harald has died at the age of 89, the palace said on Friday.

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His 53-year-old son Crown Prince Haakon is automatically succeeding him on the throne.

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“It is with deep sadness that we announce that His Majesty King Harald passed away today. King Harald passed away peacefully at Oslo University Hospital on Friday, August 28 at 6:35 am,” (0435 GMT) it said in a statement.

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The flag at the royal palace in Oslo was lowered to half-mast, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

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Europe’s oldest reigning monarch, King Harald had been in hospital in Oslo since August 17 suffering from haemolytic anaemia, a condition caused by an abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells which leads to fatigue and shortness of breath.

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The royal family had rushed to his bedside on Thursday as the palace announced that Harald’s condition was “extremely serious”.

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His wife Queen Sonja, Haakon and his wife Mette-Marit and their adult children spent much of Thursday at his bedside, with media reporting that Haakon kept vigil overnight.

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The public streamed to the palace in central Oslo for a second straight day on Friday, laying flowers on the ground and huddling in groups.

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Kaspara Bolstad, 24, told AFP Harald had been “a very steady and warm king”.

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“I think the entire Norwegian people see him as a role model and as someone who brings people together. Whether you’re for or against the monarchy, I think he’s well-liked across the board,” she said.

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Magnus Skaugseth, 27, agreed.

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“He was so inclusive and committed to having values that are inclusive in the society we live in today. When there is so much division and polarisation, he was a pillar pointing in the opposite direction.”

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Harald, who ascended the Norwegian throne in 1991, had had multiple health problems in recent years, forcing him to have a pacemaker fitted and to scale back his official schedule.

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But he always ruled out abdicating, arguing that he took a lifelong oath before the Norwegian parliament.

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Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store had cancelled a work trip to Germany early Thursday due to the king’s deteriorating condition.

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• Turbulent year –

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The past year has been a turbulent one for the Norwegian royal family.

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In February, King Harald was hospitalised for an infection and dehydration in Tenerife, where he was on a private trip with Queen Sonja.

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His wife, also 89, was briefly admitted to hospital in May due to heart problems.

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Haakon’s wife Mette-Marit is under scrutiny for her ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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Documents published in January in the United States revealed her sustained and at times intimate correspondence with Epstein between 2011 and 2014, at a time when the American financier had already been convicted.

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Mette-Marit’s son from a relationship prior to her marriage to Haakon, Marius Borg Hoiby, is also in the spotlight as a result of his legal troubles.

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He was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two rapes and 32 other charges, including violence against a former partner. He has appealed the verdict.

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Suffering herself from a serious lung disease, Mette-Marit, 53, had to undergo a lung transplant in July.

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The royals remain broadly popular with the Norwegian public, in large part to Harald’s unifying status and his unassuming, modest lifestyle.

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AFP

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