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| Hard Rain No 43 September 15, 2023 |
| The King must remain in office ! |
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The populist campaign to dethrone King Carl Gustaf gets even more shameful. Now even Dagens Nyheter has jumped on the wagon.
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On September 15, 2023, King Carl XVI Gustaf has occupied the Swedish throne for 50 years. A record hard-to-beat that deserves to be celebrated.
Dagens Nyheter (DN) pays attention to the anniversary by letting the public opinion institute Ipsos interview 1 291 voters. One of the questions asked was: Do you think it is time for the king to hand over the throne to crown prinsess Victoria so that she becomes queen or should the king stay on the throne and remain king?
Well, how did it go? DN writes (Hans Rosén Sept. 9): This is the anniversary greeting to king Carl XVI Gustaf: Job well done, but now it's time for succession.
DN continues: In a survey from DN/Ipsos a majority answers that crown prinsess Victoria should take over her father's job.
This is pure falsification of numbers. It is actually only 43 % who think that the king should hand over the throne. That is only a little more than the 38 % who think that the king should remain. Considering that we have 20 % unsure/don't know it's a bit thick to call 43 % a majority, i.e. over 50 %.
DN thus joins the big crowd of populistic royalists (?) who wants the king to be dethroned. Really unhistoric and unswedish!
And that is not enough. DN does not shy away from engaging its own topic setters in the campaign. On the very day of the anniversary we are served following bright headline: A real leader knows when it is time to throw in the sceptre. (DN Sept. 15, Susanne Nyström).
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In Holland and Belgium it is now close to a tradition to abdikate in favour of the next generation. We don't have that tradition in Sweden.
There are no formal hurdles for Carl Gustaf to abdicate and leave the throne to Victoria. The king himself decides if he wants to resign. He will not do that.
Maybe we should look a little closer at the provisions concerning the head of State in the Constitution (Regeringsformen 5 kap.). Among practical rules about deputyship when the king is absent we find the following:
6 § If the king or a queen who is head of State for a period of six months has not fulfilled or been able to fulfil their duties, it should be reported to the Parliament by the government. The Parliament decides if the king or queen is considered to have resigned. Lag (2010:1408).
So, in the latest revision of the Constitution the legislator has "slipped in" a possibility for the Parliament to "dethrone" the king. Startling!
It takes more than rigged polls, crafty law revisions and media with their own agenda to get our present king to abdicate. It is in our country's dna that the king does his job for life. He does it well and with good help from his family he will make it.
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