Haakon became king of Norway the moment his father died — no ceremony required, and none is coming. BFMTV's piece, second on the French reading list, is about the procedure: the new king presides over an extraordinary council of state to announce the death formally, and in the days that follow he swears an oath before the Storting in words the constitution fixes for him. He promises and swears to govern the Kingdom of Norway in accordance with the constitution and the laws, so help him God almighty and all-knowing.
What he will not do is be crowned. Norway abolished the coronation in 1908. His grandfather Haakon VII was the last Norwegian king crowned, and the cathedral at Trondheim, where Norwegian kings were crowned between 1814 and 1906, has been used since only for something else: in 1958 King Olav introduced a service of consecration there, a blessing of the reign rather than a crowning. Harald did the same in 1991 and Haakon may choose to. BFMTV adds that the Danish and Swedish kings are not crowned either, and that the British monarchy is the last to keep the practice.
The day itself was ceremonial in the other sense. The 53-year-old took the council of state meeting and said he was taking on the royal family's motto, "All for Norway". His father's coffin was carried to the palace in a public procession, with an estimated ten thousand people lining the streets of the capital, according to Norway's public broadcaster. The prime minister laid flowers outside the palace, signed the book of condolences and said the country was united in grief and gratitude. Queen Sonja would have marked her fifty-eighth wedding anniversary on Saturday.
Why it is on the board
Second on BFMTV's most-read list when we collected and tenth on Le Monde's, with a third French item — on the new queen — at eighth.
The same death is on three of our boards this week and each list opens it somewhere else. Britain's, which we carried yesterday, was the death and the family. Germany's most-read item today is the new king starting work. France's is the procedure — what happens next, and why a coronation is not part of it.
확인: BFMTV · BBC