Norway bid farewell Wednesday to King Harald V, a modern and unifying figure whose end of reign was tarnished by scandals, in a funeral attended by dignitaries including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Britain’s Prince William.
The funeral procession left the royal palace at 12:00 p.m. (1000 GMT), with the king’s casket draped in Norway’s red royal banner and topped with white flowers, carried on an artillery carriage.
It was transported along the city’s main avenue toward Oslo’s Lutheran cathedral, where the ceremony will begin at 1:00 pm with a minute of silence observed throughout the country.
The king died on August 28, aged 89.
Norway’s royal family, led by new King Haakon VIII, took part in the procession on foot, joined by foreign royals, heads of state and dignitaries.
Only Harald’s widow, 89-year-old Queen Sonja, and the new Queen Mette-Marit, who underwent a lung transplant in June, followed in a car.
Marius Borg Hoiby, Mette-Marit’s son from a previous relationship who is under house arrest pending the appeal of a rape and assault conviction, had been granted permission to attend the funeral.
Among other guests announced by Norway’s royal palace were Scandinavia’s royal families, royal couples from Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, the crown prince of Japan, the presidents of Finland and Germany, and the French and Thai prime ministers.
Sarcophagus
At the end of the religious service, four F-35 fighter jets will fly over the cathedral in a “missing man” formation, as the casket is taken to the Akershus Castle chapel.
There, it will be lowered into the crypt of the royal mausoleum, next to Harald’s parents and grandparents.
He will be laid to rest in a $2 million sarcophagus whose design remains secret.
Once the burial is completed, flags across the country, which were lowered to half-mast after Harald’s death, will once again be raised and church bells will ring for an hour.
Some 3,000 police and 3,500 soldiers have been deployed for the event, with exceptional airspace restrictions imposed over much of the eastern part of the country.
Until his death, Harald, who ascended the throne in 1991, was the oldest reigning monarch in Europe.
Despite mounting health woes in his later years, he had always ruled out abdicating and was extremely popular among his fellow Norwegians.
Seen as embodying an open and tolerant Norway, he made a deep impression by celebrating diversity in a 2016 speech marking the 25th anniversary of his reign.
“Norwegians are girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love each other,” he said, adding, “Norwegians believe in God, Allah, the Universe and nothing.”
Reinvigorated Monarchy
More than 46,000 Norwegians filed past the king’s casket in the past week, some waiting in line for hours.
The square in front of the palace has been covered with flowers, drawings and candles as Norwegians honoured the man they dubbed “the grandfather of the nation”.
Sitting on a folding chair since early Wednesday, Anne Marte Ellertsen, dressed in Norway’s national folk costume, told AFP she had travelled by train from the west coast with her husband and two children to pay her last respects to “a wonderful man”.
“He was deeply in touch with his people and the era in which he lived; he knew how to put into words things that a lot of people were feeling, and he called people to order when necessary,” the 35-year-old said.
Nadia, a 26-year-old student, sat on the ground, knitting to pass the time.
“Harald was simply a kind and warm king, who thought of everyone,” she said.
Almost three out of four Norwegians, 72 percent, said they support the monarchy, up by eight percentage points from a previous survey in May, in an opinion poll conducted after the king’s death and published last week.
Support had dropped to its lowest level in February, to 60 percent.
At the time, the royal family was embroiled in a series of scandals.
Mette-Marit in particular was under heavy criticism for her past ties to the late convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and her son’s legal troubles.
While Haakon VIII, 53, is very popular, opinions on the new queen, also 53, remain deeply divided.
AFP
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