Norway bids farewell to King Harald V, 'grandfather' of the nation

AFP | Oslo

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Norway bid farewell yesterday to King Harald V in a funeral reflecting his open and unifying nature, and attended by dignitaries including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Britain's Prince William.

After a procession through the streets of Oslo packed with crowds and a funeral service at Oslo's Lutheran cathedral, the king's casket was transported to the Akershus Castle church where it was to be placed in the royal crypt.

Until his death on August 28 at age 89, Harald was the oldest reigning monarch in Europe and hugely popular among Norwegians, despite the scandals that dogged his family toward the end of his reign.

Some 48,000 people lined the streets for the procession, police said.

"He was our rock," Inger Elise Kolsto, a 63-year-old accountant, told AFP.

Carried on an artillery carriage, the king's casket, draped in the red royal banner, was transported along the city's main avenue, followed on foot by his son and heir King Haakon VIII, members of his family, and dozens of other dignitaries.

Only Harald's widow, 89-year-old Queen Sonja, and the new Queen Mette-Marit, who underwent a lung transplant in June, followed the procession in a car.

Among other guests 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

The church service began at 1:00 pm with a nationwide minute of silence.

"He struck a balance between being stately and being down-to-earth," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in his eulogy.

"He made Norway greater. He spoke of a 'we' in Norway where everyone is there for each other."

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.

At the end of the service, four F-35 fighter jets flew over the cathedral in formation, as the casket made its way to the Akershus Castle.

There, after a private ceremony with the family, the casket was to be lowered into the crypt of the royal mausoleum, next to Harald's parents and grandparents.