2023-09-13 03:31:42
Printed on plates and posters, engraved on medals, the portrait of the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, who is celebrating his 50 years of reign, covers the walls of Kenth Lundqvist’s apartment.
This Nordic kingdom celebrates from September 13 to 16 the golden jubilee of its sovereign who, over the years, has earned the respect of the Swedes.
“I first became interested in royalty at six years old when the king and queen got married […]I was in front of my TV, amazed,” remembers Mr. Lundqvist, 44, an organist by profession.
This member of the Swedish royalist association, which numbers several thousand, predicts popular jubilation on the occasion of the parade organized on Saturday in this country of 10 million inhabitants, although known for its restraint.
Carl Gustaf XVI and his wife Queen Silvia will then travel through the center of Stockholm by carriage, escorted by 3,000 soldiers.
“The king represents continuity, tradition and Christian values. So, being there with 500,000 people to celebrate it is going to be a huge feeling! », says this resident of Timrå, a small town in central Sweden, a country where the role of the king is ceremonial, reduced to representational functions.
“He is not a man of power but a symbol,” Roger Lundgren, a specialist in the royal family, told AFP.
The symbol of a form of Swedish normality which explains, according to him, the respect of the people for their sovereign: “he is quite shy, he does not seek the light, he fulfills his functions as best as he can. The king is a bit like the rest of us. We are not great enthusiasts. We are rather tender and so is he.”
Bare chest
Despite limited powers, Carl XVI Gustaf knows how to use his influence, as evidenced by his intervention after the outcry triggered by the invitation of the Russian ambassador to the next Nobel banquet. The Nobel Foundation finally decided not to invite the Russian diplomat.
This respect of the Swedes for their monarch is reflected in the figures. According to a recent survey by the newspaper Dagens Nyheter and the Ipsos institute, 62% of those questioned say they support the monarchy, a constant rate for 20 years.
The king’s personality and personal journey could, however, have sparked controversy.
“His father died when he was nine months old. When he ascended the throne in 1973, he succeeded his 91-year-old grandfather. He became king at 27,” recalls Mr. Lundgren, author of a recent biography of the monarch.
Just a few months before his accession to the throne, Carl Gustaf XVI appeared shirtless in the pages of a celebrity weekly.
The first years of his reign were marked by his passion for sports cars and his taste for partying. In 2010, a book devoted to his private life reported alleged old extramarital affairs.
We must “turn the page”, the king defends himself and the Swedes follow suit.
“In Great Britain, there is this obsession among the public and in the media for everything that happens at Buckingham Palace,” analyzes Anders Lindberg, the editor-in-chief of the political department of the newspaper Aftonbladet. “The attitude here is very different. There are also all the scandals, all the sordid stories that we could talk about but don’t really do. […] Most people don’t really like to discuss this sort of thing.”
Princess Victoria
Roger Lundgren sees in the behavior of the king, at the moment he ascends the throne, the reflection of a change in the morals of the time.
“It was a very particular period in Europe, the beginning of the 70s. It had to be modern and his watchword was for Sweden to live with the times,” he says.
Among opponents of royalty, such modernity should translate into a change of regime.
Niclas Malmberg, the president of the Swedish Republican Association, which claims to have 7,500 members, wrote to Carl XVI Gustaf to ask him to take advantage of this jubilee to switch to the republic.
We could organize “a big party celebrating democracy, Sweden becoming a fully democratic country!” “, he suggests.
Attached to their monarchy, the Swedes do not share this opinion. Princess Victoria, the daughter of Carl XVI Gustaf promised to the throne, enjoys record popularity. According to the Dagens Nyheter survey, the majority of those questioned would even like her to take over from her father immediately.
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