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The Norwegian royal family is not doing well. Norway's crown princess was also mentioned in the recent Epstein files dump. Apparently she had been texting with Epstein personally for many years.
Could this combination of cases could lead to the end of the royal family in Norway?
Not only did she send texts to Epstein, she also visited him and stayed in his house in Florida. And all this was after Epstein was convicted in 2008.
They had a debate and voting in the Norwegian parliament today about the future for the royal family. 84% voted to keep the royal family.
Thanks for the update. Wow. As a Dane I'm not that surprised, I think a lot had to happen here as well for people to want to get rid of the royal family.
Also, happy cake day :) Lykke til
Thanks! Was just reading about the Norwegians in the news so I don't know about everything, but I think the voting was determined before the release of the Epstein documents and the trial of Marius. It was some parties on the far left who wanted to have the voting and they knew that they would not be close to a majority.
I'm from Sweden and people here like our king and also Victoria so I'm sure they will also handle a lot before there are any serious discussions about going for a president instead of a king.
Lazypasting something I wrote elsewhere:
Norwegian here, and I don't think it's gonna change a whole lot. Well, not for her, at least.
Personally I don't care enough about them, and I don't get the impression anyone else under 60 care that much either, neither positive or negative. Her husband is genuinely a nice person, so is her father in law (yes, I've met them both). Her son is a scumbag, though. (And he almost ran into me on a bicycle when he was 5 or so!)
So if anyone wants to litigate against her, I'm not gonna stand in the way, but for now this looks mostly like a case of "Should've known better", something several government officials have publicly stated.
Just to clarify my stance on monarchy: Conflicted. In theory it does make sense to have someone who can veto everything on behalf of the state if the government goes weapons grade guano. However, the apolitical nature of a monarch pretty much stand in the way of this. And on the other hand, I'm not a big fan of inherited power.
But all in all, I don't really care that much. Larger portions of my taxes go to stupider things.
In Democratic countries which have a President but not a Presidential System (so, like Germany and Portugal, and unlike the US and France) that's basically the entirety of the power of the President.
Personally I vastly prefer a figurehead President who has at most limited to power to dissolve parliament (for when, as you say, "the government goes weapons grade guano") which gets actually chosen on a vote and kicked out if he or she turns out to be worse than they seemed before getting the position.
From the places I lived in, I above all detested the Constitutional Monarchy in Britain, with the Royal being filthy rich and a cornerstone of a web of patronage that was part of, if not most of, the reason why the country has massive class division and discrimination by European standards. My experience in The Netherlands was nowhere as bad, though.
Our king is ok. Just wants to fly jets.
Also used to use the tram like everybody else, back in the day.
Meanwhile in the UK there are actually laws just for the Royal Family, like the one that temporary closes parts of the airspace for the Royal Family Helicopter to pass through.
Mind you, this is far from the only way in which The Netherlands has a far, FAR, FAR more egalitarian spirit at all levels of society and laws than Britain, and I say this as somebody who has lived in both countries.
And as another Norwegian who already replied to you. I'm under 60, and so are my friends, and we care
Intentional power structures should be abolished. Otherwise they will inevitably lead to corruption. We need more democracy, not less
And it's not just treated as a "should have known better" in the media. They are calling it an acute crisis for the foundation of the institution. It's treated with great seriousness
What picture does it show the world when the family representing our country, that is literally living lavishly in a castle mind you, is mired in scandals, and we cannot exactly simply replace them because it's a monarchy?
That doesn't mean inheriting monarchy though. In Germany, we have a president as Head of State who has to legally validate all federal law by signing and is officially tasked with denying this signature to unconstitutional laws. So de jure the president has the power to prevent the federal government from getting on the crazy train. Unfortunately, there are ways around the president and in all cases of an unconstitutional law being deemed unconstitutional it was by constitutional courts.
Doubtful. She’s only royal by marriage. More likely they jettison her like the British royals did to Diana or Andrew.
Fingers crossed 🤞
Guaranteed that it will blow over in Norway. Norwegians are creatures of habit and strong traditionalists (partly because we're an aging populace). Most Norwegians can't imagine their country without the royal family, because the monarchy is so anchored in the national spirit.
Which is so odd considering how little tradition and history the Norwegian monarchy really has comparatively speaking.
It's very much a manufactured one. In 1905, we stood there with our hard-earned independence after being under Danish and Swedish rule since the end of the black plague (the first being called "femhundreårsnatten" - the five hundred year long night). We asked the son of the Danish crown prince if he would like to reign in Norway, he said he would only do it if it was decided through referendum. The modern Norwegian royals have no connection to the Norwegian kings of old, but are part of the house of Schleswig-Holstein and Mountbatten-Windsor.
The lesson for princes: Do not marry a commoner.
The lesson for commoners: do not allow princes to marry
That has so far worked out for the Danish King who married an Australian commoner, and from Tasmania nonetheless.
I'm just glad that our royal family is for the most part pretty wholesome and boring.
~~Your royal family would never been better if Christopher Lee married into it that one time.~~
Edit remembered this fact entirely wrong
The what now? XD I don't recall Christpher Lee almost marrying into the Danish royal family. Unless Queen Margrethe has a few more secrets up her sleeve, other than being the one illustrator of Lord of the Rings whom Tolkien thought got it right.
I'm totally wrong. Sorry I misremembered this entirely wrong.