{"id":7588,"date":"2026-08-28T07:06:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7588"},"modified":"2026-08-28T07:06:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:06:03","slug":"king-harald-norways-reform-minded-head-of-state-dead-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7588","title":{"rendered":"King Harald,\u00a0Norway’s reform-minded head of state, dead at 89"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Norway\u2019s King\u00a0Harald, a reformer who emerged from the shadow of his well-loved, extrovert father over more than three decades on the throne, died on Friday at the age of 89, the royal palace said, at a time of multiple crises for the Norwegian royal family.<\/p>\n

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\u201cKing\u00a0Harald\u00a0passed away peacefully at Oslo University Hospital on Friday 28 August, 0635 (local time, 0435 GMT),\u201d the royal palace said on its website.<\/p>\n

Harald, who was Europe\u2019s oldest living monarch, was taken to hospital on August 17. The palace said he was being treated for a bacterial infection in his blood.<\/p>\n

In 2024, he had been hospitalized for an infection while on holiday in Malaysia and received a temporary pacemaker at a hospital there. He was flown back home by the Norwegian armed forces and later fitted with a permanent device.<\/p>\n

That same year,\u00a0Harald, Norway\u2019s ceremonial head of state since 1991, said he would reduce the number of official engagements in which he took part but ruled out abdication, insisting that his oath as king was for life.<\/p>\n

MULTIPLE CHALLENGES<\/h2>\n

Harald\u2019s death comes at a tumultuous time for the royal family.<\/p>\n

Crown Princess Mette-Marit, married to\u00a0Harald\u2019s son Crown Prince Haakon, is facing intense scrutiny for her friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a relationship for which she has apologized.<\/p>\n

Her son Marius Hoiby, born from a relationship predating her marriage to Haakon, was\u00a0found guilty\u00a0in June of \u200btwo out of four counts of rape and one count of domestic violence and sentenced to four years in prison after a seven-week trial. Both he and the prosecution have appealed the sentence.<\/p>\n

Two days after Marius was convicted, the palace said Mette-Marit had undergone a successful lung transplant, without specifying when the procedure took place.<\/p>\n

After several weeks of recovery in hospital, she returned home and celebrated her silver wedding anniversary with Haakon in August.<\/p>\n

Support for the monarchy dropped to 60% in February 2026, from 70% the previous month, according to a Norstat poll published by public broadcaster NRK, rising slightly to 64% in May.<\/p>\n

Harald\u00a0had constantly remained popular with Norwegians. According to the February poll, he was the royal who best represented the Norwegian royal family, with a note of 9.2, on a scale of 1 to 10.<\/p>\n

A DESCENDANT OF QUEEN VICTORIA<\/h2>\n

A great-great-grandchild of Britain\u2019s Queen Victoria,\u00a0Harald\u00a0acceded to the throne in 1991 and slowly introduced modern touches that brought a ceremonial post seen mainly as a symbol of national independence into the 21st century.<\/p>\n

The popular king played a crucial role comforting the nation in times of mourning.<\/p>\n

When far-right, anti-Islam fanatic Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in 2011 in Oslo and on Utoeya island, the king consoled the nation with a powerful televised speech. His voice trembling with emotion, he said that \u201cfreedom is stronger than fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

After floods, storms and other disasters, he would travel to the scene wearing rubber boots and a well-worn jacket to meet those who had lost homes or loved ones.<\/p>\n

Late in life he spoke up for tolerance, declaring in a 2016 speech that Norwegians could have many backgrounds, beliefs and sexual orientations.<\/p>\n

In November 2005,\u00a0Harald\u00a0and his wife, Sonja\u00a0Haraldsen, invited 550 Norwegians to a ball to celebrate the centenary of the country\u2019s independence from Sweden.<\/p>\n

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Harald\u00a0said in an interview at the time that Europe\u2019s royal families should not be tempted to reverse moves towards openness and retreat to their palace towers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve opened the gate it\u2019s very difficult to close it again,\u201d he told Reuters. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019d want to close it. So far so good, as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like his father Olav,\u00a0Harald\u00a0was a sports and automotive enthusiast and often drove his own car, particularly to informal events.<\/p>\n

A sailor, he captained his boat to win a world championship title and competed in several Olympics, but failed to repeat his father\u2019s feat of winning Olympic gold.<\/p>\n

Harald\u00a0also took a great interest in the preservation of nature. <\/p>\n

He realized a lifelong dream when, aged 76, he spent four days deep in the Amazon jungle of Brazil, living with the Yanomami people and sleeping in a hammock.<\/p>\n

BIRTH AND REIGN<\/h2>\n

Harald\u2019s birth on February 21, 1937, was cause for national celebration \u2013 he was the first royal heir to be born in Norway in almost 570 years. <\/p>\n

Danish and Swedish monarchs had ruled over the Scandinavian nation for centuries, until 1905.<\/p>\n

Just three years after\u00a0Harald\u00a0was born, Nazi Germany invaded the country. <\/p>\n

King Haakon and then-Crown Prince Olav fled to Britain, where they led Norway\u2019s government-in-exile, while the 3-year-old\u00a0Harald\u00a0went with his mother, Crown Princess M\u00e4rtha, to neutral Sweden, then to the United States.<\/p>\n

After living briefly at the White House, and then for five years in Bethesda, Maryland,\u00a0Harald, his older sisters Ragnhild and Astrid and their mother met frequently with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom\u00a0Harald\u00a0years later described as like a grandfather.<\/p>\n

When he returned to Norway after the war ended in 1945,\u00a0Harald\u00a0attended state schools rather than the private lessons his father had received.<\/p>\n

His marriage in 1968 to a commoner broke with tradition and followed a nine-year stand-off with his father that ended only after\u00a0Harald\u00a0threatened never to marry rather than give up Sonja.<\/p>\n

LATER YEARS<\/h2>\n
\n<\/div>\n

In 1998, the king faced an unprecedented wave of public criticism over press reports that he had accepted a 4-million-crown ($400,000) yacht from a group of industrialists as a birthday present, and that palace repairs had cost the government 500 million crowns.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, his former deputy private secretary suggested that\u00a0Harald\u00a0should abdicate at the egalitarian country\u2019s normal retirement age of 67.<\/p>\n

Opinion polls gave the king firm backing to stay on for life, however, and the criticism subsided. A year later, in another Reuters interview,\u00a0Harald\u00a0joked that he would remain on the throne for life unless he went mad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no tradition in Norway for that (abdication). But you never know. If you go completely bonkers,\u201d he said. Queen Sonja laughed and said: \u201cBut who will ever tell you that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Harald\u2019s son Haakon, 53, will be Norway\u2019s fourth king since the country gained independence from Sweden in 1905, with Mette-Marit, also aged 53, as his queen.<\/p>\n

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This is a developing story<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norway’s King Harald, a reformer who emerged from the shadow of his well-loved father over more than three decades on the throne, has died aged 89,\u00a0the royal palace\u00a0said on\u00a0Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"yoast_head":"\nKing Harald,\u00a0Norway's reform-minded head of state, dead at 89 - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7588\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"King Harald,\u00a0Norway's reform-minded head of state, dead at 89 - 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