REPUBLICAN RUMBLINGS
As the Queen visits Oslo, Robert Hardman
reveals that scandal is turning Norwegians against their royal family
STAND by for another chorus of that tired refrain from the meddling classes: why can't we have a more Scandinavian sort of monarchy? The Queen is in Norway this week, paying a state visit to her cousin, King Harald. And this offers a timely excuse to resurrect the usual portrayals of the House of Windsor as a bloated extravagance compared with those admirable lowcost, unstuffy royals across the North Sea.
Certainly, in New Labour circles, there has long been a desire for an Ikea throne. Even the Home Secretary, who is responsible for next year's Golden Jubilee, thinks so. Discussing Labour's proposed reform of the Lords before the last election, Jack Straw told the BBC: 'I think it will hasten the process towards a more Scandinavian monarchy; a monarch symbolising a much more classless society.'
In any debate on the subject, a liberal consensus usually forms around the fluffy idea that the 'bicycling' monarchies of Benelux and the Baltic should be a blueprint for our royal family and its aristoclique. But you do not have to examine the Norwegian situation for very long to realise that the Scandinavian model is not all it is cracked up to be.
After all, King Harald is the proud owner of a royal yacht, the Nov, which is paid for by the state. Britannia, of course, was forced into retirement by the same people who want 'a more Scandinavian monarchy'. With five state residences and another five private ones, King Harald is certainly keeping up with the Windsors on the property front (our Queen has five of the former and two of the latter). And while his annual civil-list grant of £2.2 million is considerably less than the Queen's £7.9 million, the average Norwegian is paying rather more than the average Briton — 55p per head versus 14p. As for the bicycling, forget it. 'Why do you British always ask about bicycling?' the king replied with a laugh when I raised the subject with him in 1994. He could vaguely remember a bike ride in the Seventies.
He is also head of the Norwegian Church, he appoints prime ministers and he attends Cabinet meetings every week. The Queen will know all this, having enjoyed three previous visits to Norway. But she will sense a different mood this week. Ten years into his reign, King Harald, a genial 64-year-old former Olympic yachtsman, suddenly finds that a number of his previously adoring subjects are thinking the unthinkable: is it time to dump the monarchy? This is nothing new in Britain where a vocal republican fringe has been banging on for years while support for the Crown has held firm at around the 70 per cent mark.
In Norway, though, it has come as a shock. Ten years ago, the monarchy commanded approval ratings of 90 per cent, and even the other 10 per cent thought that the king would make an ideal president. In the last year, that support has tumbled to 65 per cent. Last December, a republican party was registered. In April, it emerged that half the country wanted a referendum on the monarchy and a majority of the Storting (parliament) now believes that there should be a re-evaluation of the monarchy's role.
And what has brought all this on? It has nothing to do with cost or constitutional powers. It has everything to do with the younger generation. Last year the public were astonished when Crown Prince Haakon started dating a new woman. Not only was she a single mother, but the father of her child had drug convictions. And the 27-year-old prince was planning to move in with her. The news kick-started a wider debate about the monarchy itself. The Nor wegian press, once ultra-deferential, started to publish unfavourable stories. One tabloid even printed a paparazzo's shot of the prince and his girlfriend, Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby, kissing. It might not seem that significant by Fleet Street standards but it marked a watershed in Norway.
Hostility to the relationship has softened since the prince announced that he would be marrying Miss Tjessem Hoiby, 27, in August. The king and queen have been fully supportive but few dispute that the institution has lost much of its gloss.
Prince Haakon's choice of girlfriend has proved no less controversial than his sister's choice of boyfriend. Princess Martha Louise's latest companion is An Behn, a little-known novelist who featured in a recent travel documentary in which he appeared to be taking drugs. The public were appalled. Seven years ago, the Norwegian press turned a blind eye when Princess Martha Louise was cited as a co-respondent in a British divorce case. In today's changed climate, however, everyone knows all about the princess and the pot smoker'.
The root of the problem is not public prudery — this is liberal Scandinavia, after all — but a sense of disappointment. King Harald's grandfather, King Haakon, is still much-revered as a wartime hero. His son, King Olav, was a hugely popular postwar figure, and King Harald himself was regarded as a vital force for national unity during Norway's prolonged split over EU membership. But the jury is out on the succession. As one respected Norwegian commentator put it to me privately: 'We have always liked to believe that our royal family are among us but somehow different from us. When they start behaving like ordinary people, then the ordinary people start asking themselves: "What is the point of them?" '
Even the republicans are invoking the example of former monarchs to bolster their case. At the launch of the new republican party, co-founder and author Jon Michelet recalled King Olav's famous remark that he did not need personal bodyguards because he had four million Norwegians doing the job anyway. `Today's Crown Prince,' said Mr Michelet, 'is surrounded by four million informers whose main goal is to call VG [a well-known tabloid] as soon as they see him at the grocery store.'
So how come the Windsors have endured worse scandals and suffered less damage? Could it be that all that pomp, grandeur and distance — what critics would call 'stuffiness' — actually works to the Windsors' advantage? If Buckingham Palace officials are likely to take home one thought from this week's stately progress through the fiords, it is this: however much the People might like the idea of a 'People's monarchy', they are not best pleased when they get one.
Robert Hardman is a writer and columnist for the Daily MaiL
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