Norwegian King Harald V passed away last week on 28 August 2026 at the age of 89. His son, Crown Prince Haakon Magnus (53), has now taken over as Head of State. He will be known as King Haakon VIII, and his wife will be known as Queen Mette Marit (53). Their eldest child, Princess Ingrid Alexandra (22), will be known as Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra. There is no change as to the title of their second child, Prince Sverre Magnus (20). The new king’s sister, Princess Märtha Louise (54), married to African-American Durek Verrett (51), stays a non-working royal. The King’s funeral will take place on 9 September from Oslo Cathedral, after which date the time of national mourning ends. On Monday, 1 September, the new King Haakon VIII took the constitutional Oath of Allegiance before the Storting, the Norwegian Parliament, presided over by Masud Gharakhani, Speaker of Parliament, called President of Parliament in Norway.

It is often said that it is an anachronism and contradiction that some of the world’s most democratic countries, such as the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, are still monarchies, or ‘constitutional monarchies’, as they are called, since the king or queen does not have any political power, which is vested in the elected parliament and the cabinet. The king or queen ‘inherits the throne’, as it is called, and it is the eldest child (earlier only the eldest boy) of the sitting monarch who takes over and becomes head of state at the moment the earlier monarch passes away. A clear majority of Norwegians want to keep the monarchy, according to opinion polls.

It is argued that a king or queen, and other royals, can represent continuity and have unifying roles, as indeed the late King Harald V of Norway had, being admired and respected by all citizens, drawing attention to issues that may be more difficult for elected, party-based politicians and leaders to do, perhaps especially so in countries where religion has a less unifying role than before, indeed with........

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